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v.\^,^fe..: 


CHIEF  JUSTICES 


OF  ENGLAND 


CHIEF  JUSTICES  OF  ENGLAND. 


JAMES  COCKP.OFT  &.C0 


THE     LIVES 


OF 


THE   CHIEF  JUSTICES 


OF 


ENGLAND. 


LATE   JUDGE   OF   THE   HIGH    COURT   OF   BOMBAY,   ETC. 


VOL.     VI. 


NEW    YORK: 
GEORGE  W.   SMITH    &    CO.,    LAW    PUBLISHERS, 

95     NASSAU    STREET. 
1874- 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

Denman  on  Norfolk  Circuit,  Spring  Assizes,  1834,  I.  Raised  to  the  Peer 
age  as  Baron  Denman  of  Dovedale,  I.  Immediate  cause  of  his  eleva- 
tion, I.  Correspondence:  Lord  Gey  to  Denman,  March  19,  1834,  2. 
Denman  to  Lord  Grey,  March  20,  2.  Lord  Grey's  second  letter,  March  21, 
3.  Denman's  reply,  March  22,  3.  Correspondence  between  Brougham  and 
Lady  Denman  in  town,  March  22,  4.  Denman's  letter  to  his  wife  from 
Bury  St.  Edmunds,  March  22,  4.  From  Norwich,  March  23  and  26,  5. 
Coke  of  Holkham  in  his  eighty-second  year,  5.  Denman  to  his  third 
daughter,  "  Dear  and  Honorable  Fanny,"  while  waiting  to  be  introduced 
into  the  House  of  Lords,  6.  Kindness  of  his  brother  judges,  6.  Civility 
of  the  Peers,  6.  Margery  Coke  at  two  years,  7.  Denman  gratified  at  his 
peerage,  7.  Apprehensions  of  some  of  his  friends,  7.  His  want  of 
•wealth  and  of  provident  habits  rendered  the  step  doubtful,  7.  His  case 
an  argument  for  life  peerages,  8.  His  health  suffered  from  the  additional 
work  of  the  House  of  Lords,  8.  Removal  from  Russell  Square  to  Port- 
land Place,  8.  Extract  from  letter  to  Mrs.  Wright,  written  in  library  of 
House  of  Lords,  8.  Denman's  estimate  of  his  own  character  and  career, 

9.  How  "  the  King's  cheese  goes  in  parings,"  9.     Political  changes  in 

1834,  9.     Resignation  of  Lord  Grey,  9.     Of  Lord  Melbourne  and  all  the 
Whig  ministry,  9.     Short  dictatorship  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  9. 
Denman  holds  the  seal  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  from  Novem- 
ber 28  to  December  10,  when  Sir  Robert  Peel  is  appointed  to  the  office,  9. 
Note  from  Duke  of  Wellington  of  November  27,  1834,  explaining  this, 

10.  Denman's  second  son,  Joseph,  appointed  by  Lord  Auckland,  just  be- 
fore the  Whigs  go  out,  to  the  "  Curlew,"  10.     First  reformed  Parliament 
dissolved,  December  20,  1834,  10.     New  Parliament  meets,  February  19, 

1835,  10.   Letter  from  Guildhall  to  Mrs.  Wright,  February  26,  10.   Heavy 
entry,  u.     Late  sittings,  n.     Destruction  of  the  monster  "Arrear,"  II. 
Sir  F.  Pollock  to  the  jury,  u.    Reception  of  King  and  Ministry  on  Feb- 
ruary 9,  II.     Brougham  and  Lyndhurst  in  the  Lords,  n.     Unpleasant 
prospects  for  Lyndhurst,  12. 


^  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXV 

1834    Changes  in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  13.     Sir  John  Williams  in 
place  of  Sir  James  Parke,  13.     Sir  John  Taylor  Coleridge  in  place  of  Sir 
Elias  Taunton,  14.     Friendship  between   Denman    and   Coleridge,  15. 
Denman  on  Western  Circuit  in  Summer  Assizes  of  1834,  15.     Letter  to 
Mrs.  Baillie,  15.     Sydney  Smith  at  Combe  Flory,  16.     Letter  to  Lady 
Denman  from  Bristol,  August  19,  1834,  i°.     Adventures  between  Wells 
and  Bristol,  16.     Reception  at  Bristol,  17.     Dinner  with  Sheriff  there,  17. 
1835  :    Oxford   Circuit,   Summer  Assizes  of   1835,  18.     Letter  to   Lady 
Denman  from  Oxford,  July  21,  1855,  18.     The  Dons  and  Dr.  Buckland, 
18.     To  same  from  Worcester,  18.     Dinner  with  R.  Croft  in  Exeter  Col- 
lege Hall,  18.     Blenheim,  19.     To  same  from  Gloucester,  August  16,  19. 
The  Wye,  Ross,  Goodrich  Castle,  20.     Tintern  Abbey,  20.     The  Wynd- 
cliffe,  20.    Entry  into  Gloucester  on  a  market  night,  20.    "  God  bless  Lord 
Denman,"  20.  Reason  for  inserting  such  letters  as  the  above,  20.  Enforced 
leisure  on  circuit,  20.     Maccaronic  Latin  Lines  on  Tindal,  C.  J.,  and  the 
pig,  21.     Denman  ex-officio  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Lords,  22.     Short 
Speech  on  Brougham's  Education  resolutions  of  May  21, 1835,  22.     Exe- 
cution  of  Wills  Act,  23.     Personal   discussion   between   Denman   and 
Lyndhurst  as  to  Lyndhurst's  desertion  of  his  old  political  principles,  Au- 
gust 27,  1835,  23.     Sitting  of  Parliament  protracted  till  September  10, 
25.     Letter  to  Mrs.  Baillie  from  Middleton,  September  19,  25.     Literary 
and  other  amusements  of  the  Long  Vacation  there,  26.     Joanna  Baillie's 
dramas,  26.    Ben  Jonson's  "  Alchemist,"  26.    1836  :  Letter  from  London 
to  Lady  Denman,  January  19, 1836,  27.    Legal  Gossip,  27.    Lady  Strath- 
eden,  27.   Lord  Cottenham,  Chancellor,  27.    Lord  Abinger  on  his  daugh- 
ter's elevation  to  the  peerage,  27.    A  visit  to  Jekyll  (set.  82),  27.    Sir  John 
Campbell  and  Lady  Stratheden  at  Holland  House,  28.     "  Henriquez  "  at 
Covent  Garden,  28.     Acknowledgment  of  birth-day  present  from  Mrs. 
Baillie,  February  21,  1836,  28.   Parliament :  Opinion  in  favor  of  abolish- 
ing Courts  Palatine,  June  10,  29.    Last  discussion  of  Prisoner's  Counsel 
Bill,  June  23,   29.     South  Wales  Circuit,   Summer  Assizes  of  1836,  29. 
Letter  to  Lady  Denman,  July  29,  from  Haverford  West,  29.     Pembroke 
coast,  29.     Milford  Haven,  30.     "  Elligoy  Stack,"  30.     To  same,  August 
7,  from  Brecon,  30.      Remmiseence  of  walking-tour  with  Shadwell  in 
1797.  30.     First  letter  to  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge,  Chester,  August  15.  31. 
Wrong  convictions,  31.     Need  of  Prisoner's  Counsel  Bill,  31.     Question 
as  to  appointing  his  third  son,  Richard,  Clerk  of  Assize  for  South  Wales 
Circuit,  32.     Letter  to  same  from  Middleton,  August  23,  1836,  32.     Ref- 
erence to  Coleridge's  severe  work  on  the  Northern  Circuit,  32.     Good 
advice  to  a  hard-worked  judge,  32.     "  Discard  all  anxiety,"  32.     Invita- 
tion to  Middleton,  32.     Denman's  interest  in  American  jurisprudence, 


CONTENTS.  vii 

33.     Letter  of  July  17,  1836,  to  Mr.  B.  Rand,  Advocate,  Boston  (U.  S.), 
33.     Vacation  letter  to  Mrs.  Baillie,  describing  visit  to  Chatsworth,  34. 

CHAPTER     XXVI. 

Denman's  conflict  with  the  House  of  Commons  from  1837  to  1840,  36.  Case 
of  Stockdale  v.  Hansard,  36.  MS.  fragment  relating  to  it,  36.  Mode  in 
which  the  matter  will  here  be  dealt  with,  36.  House  of  Commons'  Reso- 
lutions as  to  publishing  printed  papers,  &c.,  1835,  37.  Prison  Inspectors' 
Report,  reflecting  on  Stockdale,  published  in  1836,  37.  Stockdale's  first 
action  for  libel  against  the  Messrs.  Hansard,  commenced  November  7, 
1836,  37.  The  defense  on  the  record,  38.  Trial  before  Lord  Denman, 
February  7,  1837,  38.  Direction  of  Lord  Denman  to  the  jury  on  the 
plea  of  privilege,  as  reported  in  the  "Times"  of  February  8,  1837;  as 
stated  by  Lord  Denman  in  the  MS.  fragment ;  in  his  speech  in  the  House 
of  Lords  on  April  6,  1840,  38.  Reasons  of  Lord  Denman's  resentment 
against  Lord  Campbell  as  counsel  for  the  defense  in  Stockdale  v.  Han- 
sard, &c.,  41.  Indignation  of  the  House  of  Commons  against  Lord  Den- 
man, 41.  Appointment  of  a  committee,  41.  Report  of  committee,  May 
8,  1837,41.  Resolutions  of  House,  May  31,  1837,  42.  Lord  Denman's 
"  Observations  on  the  Report  of  May  8,"  42.  Stockdale  brings  a  second 
action,  43.  Plea  of  privilege  the  only  plea  put  in,  43.  Demurrer  to  the 
plea,  43.  Argument  on  the  demurrer,  Trinity  Term,  1839,  44.  Judg- 
ment of  Lord  Denman  (and  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench)  on  the  demur- 
rer, May  31,  1839,  44.  Remarks  on  Lord  Denman's  judgment :  the  prin- 
ciple and  the  precedent,  46.  He  publishes,  from  a  MS.  revised  by  Lord 
Holt,  the  great  judgment  in  Ashby  v.  White,  46.  Extract  from  introduc- 
tion to  this  publication,  46.  Lord  Denman's  high  estimate  of  Lord  Holt, 
48.  Damages  in  second  action  assessed  at  j£ioo,  49.  Stockdale,  in  the 
autumn  of  1839,  brings  a  third  action,  to  which  there  is  no  plea,  and 
judgment  accordingly  passes  by  default,  49.  Damages  and  costs  assessed 
at  £640,  and  levied,  49.  Sheriff  ruled  to  pay  over  the  amount  to  Stock- 
dale,  49.  Parliament  meets  on  January  16,  1840,  49.  Stockdale  ami 
Sheriffs  ordered  to  be  called  to  the  bar,  50.  Stockdale  committed  to 
Newgate  on  January  17,  50.  Sheriffs  to  custody  of  Sergeant-at-Ai  ms  on 
2ist,  50.  On  24th  they  sue  out  their  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  50.  On 
25th  are  brought  up  in  custody  before  the  Court  of  Queench's  Bench,  51. 
Being,  on  the  face  of  the  return,  committed  for  contempt,  the  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench  can  not  interfere,  and  they  are  remitted  to  custody,  51. 
That  Court,  in  the  Habeas  Corpus  case,  reaffirms  its  judgment  in  Stock- 
dale  v.  Hansard,  51.  Account  from  "Annual  Register,"  of  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Sheriffs  before  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  52.  Feeling  of 
the  public  and  the  Bar  in  their  favor,  52.  Their  imprisonment,  53.  Its 


viii  CONTENTS. 

duration  53.  Stockdale,  while  in  Newgate,  brings  a  fourth  and  then  a 
fifth  action,  53.  His  attorney,  attorney's  son,  and  attorney's  clerk  are 
committed  to  Newgate,  53.  Public  feeling  strongly  excited  against  the 
House  of  Commons,  54.  On  March  5,  Lord  John  Russell  brings  in  the 
"Printed  Papers  Bill,"  54.  The  Solicitor  General  (Wilde)  protests 
against  this  as  a  surrender  of  principle,  54.  The  Bill,  in  fact,  a  compro- 
mise, 55.  Bill  passes  the  Commons,  55.  Second  reading  in  Lords  on 
April  6,  1840,  55.  Lord  Denman's  admirable  speech  on  second  reading, 
55.  Duke  of  Wellington's  objections  to  Bill,  56.  It  passes  and  receives 
Royal  assent  on  April  10,  56.  Release  of  the  prisoners  in  contempt,  56. 
Lord  Denman's  conduct  in  the  question  wins  him  high  public  esteem,  56. 
Letter  of  "  Civilis,"  57.  Discussion  of  Stockdale  v.  Hansard  in  House  of 
Lords,  March  20,  1843,57.  Opinion  of  Westminster  Hall  in  favor  of  the 
judgment,  57.  The  "Printed  Papers  Act"  not  a  Parliamentary  reversal  of 
it,  58.  Speeches  in  this  debate  of  Lord  Campbell,  Lord  Denman,  Lord 
Abinger,  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  58.  Two  letters  arising  out  of 
Stockdale  v.  Hansard :  one  from  Denman  to  Lord  Commissioner  Adam 
(on  Muir's  case),  August  27,  1838,  60.  The  other  from  Denman  to  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  on  "  Printed  Papers  Bill,"  March  29,  1840,  6l. 

CHAPTER    XXVI  I  . 

1837 :  Death  of  William  IV.  and  accession  of  Queen  Victoria,  June  20, 
1837,  63.  Parliament :  Abolition  of  death  punishment  for  forgery,  July 
14,  1837,  63.  Of  arrest  on  mesne  process,  December  3,  1837,  64.  Let- 
ter from  Lord  Denman  of  August  4, 1837,  to  his  daughters,  describing  a 
dinner  at  Buckingham  Palace,  64.  Letter  to  Mrs.  Baillie  from  Middle- 
ton,  October  20,  1837,  66.  Vacation  readings,  66.  Letter  to  Coleridge, 
from  Guildhall,  December  15,  1837,  66.  Sir  J.  Awdry,  67.  Wordsworth, 
67.  Creswell,  67.  1838  :  Marriage  of  Denman's  second  daughter  with 
his  old  friend  Hodgson,  then  vicar  of  Bakewell  and  Edensor,  and  Arch- 
deacon of  Derbyshire,  6S>  Hodgson's  great  social  talents,  68.  Intimacy 
with  the  sixth  Duke  of  Devonshire,  68.  Denman  from  Western  Circuit, 
March  21,  1838,  to  Hodgson  on  the  projected  marriage,  69.  To  his 
second  daughter  on  same  subject,  March  26, 1838,  69.  Honeymoon  letter 
to  the  newly-married  couple,  from  Guildhall,  May  24,  1838,  describing  a 
dinner  at  Lord  Clarendon's,  69.  Lord  Grey  out  of  humor  at  having  to 
carve  roast  pig,  70.  Lord  Holland's  amused  good  nature,  70.  Lord 
Grey  can  not  read  "Pickwick,"  70.  Anecdotes  by  Rogers  of  Fox,  70.  A 
hard  choice  for  Wilberforce,  70.  A  horse  cause  at  Guildhall ;  the  ostler's 
widow,  71.  Denman  at  Strathfieldsaye  in  Spring  Assizes  of  1838,  71. 
Parliament :  Substitution  of  Affirmations  for  Oaths  Bill  first  brought  for- 
ward by  Denman,  June  15,  1838,  72.  Rejected  by  thirty-two  to  sixteen, 
72.  Legal  reform,  enabling  the  Common  Law  Courts  to  sit  in  Bane  out 


CONTENTS.  ix 

of  term,  73.  Importance  attached  to  it  by  Denman,  73.  Vacation  letters 
from  Middleton,  to  Coleridge,  September  27,  1838,  73.  To  Mrs.  Baillie, 
October  25,  1838,  73.  Denman  takes  his  son  George  to  Cambridge,  74. 
Brilliant  University  career  of  Hon.  George  Denman,  74.  Notice  of 
Brougham's  '' Characters,"  &c.,  75.  His  disparagement  of  Fox,  75.  Ma- 
caulay's  paper  in  the  "Edinburgh"  on  Sir  W.  Temple,  75.  1839:  Par- 
liament :  "Custody  of  Infants  Bill,"  July  10,  76.  Denman  on  Home  Cir- 
cuit with  Chief  Justice  Tindal ;  Summer  Assizes,  1839,  76.  Legacy  of 
,£10,000  to  his  unmarried  daughters  from  old  Sir  Francis  Drake,  77. 
Denman's  first  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  Slave  Trade,  Au- 
gust 15,  1839,  77-  Its  great  success,  77.  His  account  of  it  in  letters  to 
Lady  Denman  of  August  15  and  16,  79.  A  sketch  from  the  Old  Bailey, 
79.  Trial  of  two  little  girls  for  picking  pockets,  80.  Line  of  encourage- 
ment to  his  son  George  at  Cambridge,  September,  1839,  80.  1840:  Par- 
liament :  Petty  slander  actions,  costs  not  to  exceed  damages,  February 
17,  1840,  81.  Admission  that  more  Chancery  judges  are  wanted,  June  I, 

1840,  81.    Hodgson  up  for  the  Provostship  of  Eton,  81.    Denman's  letter 
of  April  8,  1840,  on  the  complications  attending  the  elections,  81.    Hodg- 
son finally  elected  Provost  (Regincz  auxilio),  82.    Letter  to  Mrs.  Hodgson 
on  economy,  83.     Summer  Assizes  of  1846  ;  North  Wales  Circuit,  83. 
The  Chief  Justice,  in  the  Sheriff's  coach,  enters  Newtown  at  a  gallop,  84. 
Letter  from  Ruthin  to  Lady  Denman,  describing  Hollyhead  and  Bangor, 
84.     The  fall  of  the  Ligwy,  85.     The  South  Stack  Lighthouse,  85.     Let- 
ter to  Merrivale  from  Middleton,  no  longer  "stony,"  but  "woody,"  86. 
Letter  to  Mrs.  Baillie,  August  16,  1840,  86.     His  son  Lewis's  sketches, 

86.  Denman's  liking  for  old  ladies,  86.    His  son  Richard  about  to  marry, 

87.  His  son  George  reading  eleven  hours  a  day,  87.    Letter  to  Coleridge, 
October  n,  1840,  87.     Literary  leisure,  87.     Jokes  on  Patteson  among 
the  partridges,  87.    Arnold's  notion  of  Modern  Rome  as  a  palimpsest,  87. 
Judge  Story's  approval  of  the  judgment  in  Stockdale  v.  Hansard,  88. 

CHAPTER     XXVIII. 

1841 :  Changes  in  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  89.  Littledale  retires  and 
Wightman  takes  his  place,  Hilary  Term,  1841,  89,  Trial  of  Lord  Car- 
digan before  the  Peers,  February  16,  1841,  for  wounding  Captain  Harvey 
Tuckett  in  a  duel,  90.  Denman,  Lord  High  Steward,  90.  Remarks  on 
the  break-down  of  the  case,  92.  Case  of  Lord  Waldegrave,  March  29, 

1841,  93.     News  reaches  England,  in  March,  1841,  of  the  destruction  of 
the  Barracoons  (slave  warehouses),  by  Captain  Denman,  on  the  Gallinas 
River,  in  the  previous  November,  93.     Denman's  pride  at  the  Captain's 
proceedings,  94      Writes  and  sends  account  of  it  to  his  sons,  George  and 
Lewis,  at  Cambridge,  94.    Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  John  Russell,  then 
respectively  Foreign  and  Colonial  Ministers,  approve  Captain  Denman's 


c  CONTENTS. 

proceedings  in  letters  to  Admiralty  of  April  6  and  7,  1841,  95.     Lord 
Aberdeen's  mischievous  letter  when  Foreign  Minister,  of  a  year's  later 
date,  96.     Powell  Buxton  to  Denman,  March  18,  1841,  97.     Venerable 
Thomas  Clarkson  to  same,  March  29,  1841,  97.     Letter  from  Charles 
Sumner  to  Denman,  regarding  Judge  Story,  who  sends  copy  of  his  work 
on  the  "  Conflict  of  Laws,"  99.     Denman  presides  at  the  four  hundredth 
anniversary  dinner  of  Eton  College,  99.    Letter  to  Denman  on  this  from 
the  great  Marquis  of  Wellesley,  May  22, 1841,  TOO.  Trial  before  Denman, 
of  Moxon,  for  publishing  Shelley's  "  Queen  Mab,"  101.     Dissolution  of 
Parliament,  June  23,  1841,  102.    Resignation  of  Lord  Melbourne,  August 
30,  1841,  and  accession  to  power  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,   102.     1842  :  Com- 
pliment by  Denman  in  Parliament  to  the  great  American  jurists,  February 
14,  1842,  102.     Chancellor  Kent  sends  Denman  copy  of  fourth  edition 
of  his  "  Commentaries,"  103.     Denman,  on  March  8,  1842,  moves  his 
Evidence   Act,   abolishing  incompetency  from  interest,  104.     Letter  of 
Denman,  April  5,  1842,  to  his  fourth  daughter,  Margaret,  on  her  then  re- 
cent marriage  with  Mr.  H.  W.  Macaulay,  105.     Denman  persuades  Hal- 
lam  to  take  the  chair  at  the  Eton  dinner  for  1842,  105.     Hallam's  letter 
on  the  subject,  May  9,  1842,  106.    Denman,  a  second  time,  introduces  an 
Affirmations  for  Oaths  Bill,  107.     His  excellent  speech  of  June  27,  1842, 
107.     Note  from  Sydney  Smith  acknowledging  a  copy  of  this  speech,  107. 
Summer  Assizes  of  1842,  108.  Denman  and  Maule  at  York,  108.    Chart- 
ist prisoners,  108.     Government  offer  a  special  commission,    108.     Den- 
man and  Maule  decline  it,  and  proceed  at  once  to  try  all  the  prisoners, 
109.     Great  benefit  to  the  country  of  their  doing  so,  no.     Denman's 
letters  from  York,    no.     To  Lady  Denman,  August  15,  1842,110.     To 
same,  August  21,  no.     Sydney  Smith  and  the  whitlow,  in.     Same  date 
to  his  third  daughter,  Fanny,  in.     Tumults  subsiding,   in.     Duke  of 
Cambridge  at  the  Minster,  ill.     Dean  Cockbum's  anti-Tractarian  ser- 
mon,  ill.     To  Lady  Denman,  August  22,  112.     Duke  of  Cambridge 
full  of  questions,   112.     Writing   answers  to  "expected  addresses,"    112. 
Sir  Charles  Anderson  in  from  Bedale,  113.     To  Lady  Denman,  August 
27,  114.    Assizes  protracted  into  September,  114.    Once  more  at  Middle- 
ton,  114.     His   sisters,    Mrs.  Baillie  and  Lady  Croft,   pay   their  long- 
promised  visit  there,   114.     Letter  to  Hodgson,  October  18,  1842,  on 
funeral  of  the  great  Marquis  of  Wellesley,  115. 

CHAPTER    XXIX 

Denman's  intercourse  with  men  of  letters,  117.  Rogers  and  Sydney  Smith, 
117.  Talfourd  and  Charles  Dickens,  117.  Denman  at  Talfourd's 
"  Ion,"  117.  References  to  Denman  in  Mr.  Forster's  "  Life  of  Dickens," 
117.  Dr.  Samuel  Warren,  Q.C.,  118.  Note  from  Sydney  Smith  to  Den- 
man regarding  Lady  Holland,  1 1 8.  1843:  Parliamentary  Session,  119. 


CONTENTS.  xi 

Slave  Trade,  speech  on,  119.  Lord  Aberdeen's  letter,  April  7,  1843,  120. 
Denrnan  stands  up  for  the  right  of  "  Prevention,"  120.  Reference  to  his 
son's  exploit  at  the  Gallinas,  121.  Lord  Aberdeen  explains  away  his  let- 
ter, and  eulogizes  Captain  Denman,  121.  Denman  explains  his  views  as 
to  Slave  Trade  suppression,  April  II,  1843,  122.  On  Norfolk  Circuit  for 
Summer  Assizes  of  1843,  I22-  Duke  of  Buckingham's  banquet  to  the 
Judges  at  Stowe,  122.  Denman's  judgment  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  the 
Queen  v.  Millis  (marriage  laws),  123.  The  Law  Lords  equally  divided, 
123.  Concluding  passage  in  Denman's  judgment,  124.  1844  ;  Denman 
on  Home  Circuit,  Spring  Assizes,  1844,  125.  Letter  from  Maidstone  to 
Coleridge,  March  12,  1844,  125.  Dowling,  Sergeant,  to  a  Kentish  com- 
mon jury  in  a  seduction  case,  125.  Death  sentence  pronounced  in 
Louisiana  for  aiding  the  escape  of  a  slave,  126.  Denman  brings  this 
sentence  to  the  notice  of  the  House  of  Lords,  March  18,  1844,  126. 
Death  of  Denman's  old  and  intimate  friend,  John  Herman  Merivale, 
April  25,  1844,  126.  Parliament:  Ecclesiastical  and  Diocesan  Courts, 
April  I,  1844,  127.  Consolidation  of  Criminal  Law,  May  13,  1844,  127. 
Abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt,  June  21,  1844,  128.  Opening  of 
Mazzini's  letters  at  the  Post  Office  under  warrant  from  Secretary  of 
State,  128.  Denman's  indignant  speech,  June  17,  1844,  128.  His  speech 
on  June  25  for  defining  and  strictly  limiting  the  privilege,  129.  Denman 
on  Midland  Circuit,  Summer  Assizes  of  1,844,  I29-  Letter  to  Lady  Den- 
man, begun  at  Leicester  and  ended  at  Coventry,  129.  The  Judge's  hat 
left  behind,  129.  Ride  over  the  Leicestershire  country,  130.  Coventry, 
130.  Lord  Leigh,  130.  Visit  to  Saxby  Church,  130.  Long  Vacation  of 
1844,  130.  Letter  to  Coleridge,  August  13,  1844,  130.  Reference  to  the 
case  of  O'Connell,  then  pending  in  the  House  of  Lords,  130.  Denman's 
judgment  in  course  of  formation,  131.  His  researches  in  the  "Year 
Books,"  131.  His  regret  at  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Justice  Erskine,  132. 
Letter  to  same,  132.  Literary  Gossip,  132.  Personal  unity  and  poetical 
greatness  of  Homer,  132.  Lord  Nugent,  132.  "  Burke's  Correspond- 
ence," 182.  Lives  of  Lord  Malmesbury,  and  of  W.  Taylor,  132^  Guizot 
and  his  lectures  on  European  civilization,  132.  His  opinion  as  to  the 
impossibility  of  war  with  France,  133.  Letter  to  Mrs.  Hodgson,  October 
20,  1844,  on  Louis  Phillippe's  visit  to  Windsor  Castle,  133.  Royal  mis- 
takes as  to  Denman's  identity,  133.  Thanks  to  the  Hodgsons  for  their 
congratulations  on  his  fortieth  wedding-day,  133.  Birthday  verses  of 
1844  from  Lady  Denman  to  her  husband,  and  his  reply,  135.  Continued 
felicity  of  their  union,  135. 

CHAPTER     XXX. 

Oeneral  character  of  Denman's  judgment  in  O'Connell's  case,  136.     Sketch 
of  previous  history  of  the  case,  136.     The  two  principal  objections  in  the 


ii  CONTENTS. 

House  of  Lords  :  first,  that  the  jury  list  was  imperfect ;  second,  that  ver- 
dict and  judgment  were  given  generally  on  all  the  counts  of  the  indict- 
ment, some  of  them  being  bad,  137.     The  Judges  unanimous  against  the 
first  objection,  137.     Six  to  two  against  the  second  objection,  138.   Judg- 
ment of  Lords  on  September  4,  1844,  138.     Lyndhurst  and  Brougham 
against  the  objections,  138.     Denman,    Cottenham,    and   Campbell   in 
favor  of  the  objections,  138.     So  the  sentence  was  quashed,  and  O'Con- 
nell  discharged,   138.     Analysis  of  Denman's  judgment,  138.     Key-note 
struck  in  the  opening  sentences,  138.     The  famous  words  "  A  mockery, 
a  delusion,  and  a  snare,"  139.     Argument  on  the  first  objection,  as  to  the 
jury  list,  139.     Ground  on  which  the  Judges  had  held  that  there  could  be 
no  challenge  to  the  array,  139.     Denman's  answer  to  this  view,  139. 
True  principle  of  challenge  to  the  array,  140.     A  grievous  -wrong  admit- 
ted, yet  no  remedy,  if  challenge  to  the  array  excluded,  140.    The  absence 
of  all  other  remedy  shows  that  the  old  remedy  of  challenge  to  the  array 
must  exist,    142.     Argument  on  the  second  point,  viz.,  that  a  general 
judgment  on  an  indictment  containing  many  counts,  some  being  bad, 
can'not  be  supported,  142.    This  objection  shown  to  be  not  purely  techni- 
cal, 142.     Condemnation  of  long,  unintelligible  indictments,  142.    Judg- 
ment of  the  House  of  Lords  on  this  point  has  ever  since  been  followed 
in  the  administration  of  the  Criminal  Law,  143.     Mr.  (now  Sir)  Barnes 
Peacock  raised  and  principally  argued  this  point,  143-     Impression    pro- 
duced on  the  public  by  Denman's  judgment,  143.     Testimony  by  the 
Press  as  to  its  admirable  delivery,  143.     Action  of  the  speaker,    144. 
Fact   communicated  by  Mr.   Justice   Denman,    144.     Estimate  by  the 
"  Morning  Chronicle"  of  the  lasting  value  of  the  judgment,  144.     Letter 
to  Denman  on  the  judgment,  from  his  old  friend  Shadsvell,  V.C.,  Septem- 
ber 7,  1844,  145.     From  Empson,  September  15,  146.     Effect  in  Ireland, 
of  the  judgment,  146.     Letters  from  Denman  to  various  persons  on  the 
judgment,  146.     To  his  brother-in-law,  Rev.  J.  Vevers,  147.      To  Col- 
eridge, September  20,  1844,  describing  what  took  place  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  elsewhere,  previous  to  and  at  the  time  of  the  delivery  of  the- 
judgment,   147.     Parke's  judgment  on  the  second  objection  ascribed  to 
disappointment  in  not  having  been  made  Chief  Baron  on  Lord  Abinger's 
death,   148.     Indignation  of  Denman  at  this  base  and  baseless  insinua- 
tion,  149.     Tribute  to  Parke,  149.     Another  account  by  Denman  of  the 
private  history  of  the  judgment,  in  a  letter  to  his  son-in-law,  H.  W. 
Macaulay,  149.     Denman  did  not  make  up  his  mind  on  the  second  ob- 
jection till  the  last  moment,  150.     The  Lay  Lords  wished  to  vote  on  the 
question,  150.     Results  if  the  Lay  Lords  had  swamped  the  Law  Lords,, 
151.    This  scandal  averted  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  151. 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

CHAPTER     XXXI. 

1845 :  Parliament,  152.  Renewed  discussion  on  opening  letters  at  Post 
Office,  May  30,  1845,  152.  Lord  Radnor's  bill,  152.  Denman's  speech 
on  second  reading,  152.  Contrast  between  Cromwell,  under  whom  the 
practice  originated,  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  154.  Earnest  appeal  to 
the  Duke,  154.  Lord  Radnor's  bill  rejected  by  fifty-five  to  nine,  154. 
Denman  and  other  Peers  protest,  154.  Discretionary  power  to  Judges  to 
mitigate  penalties  affixed  by  statute,  July  3,  1845,  154.  Death  of  Den- 
man's sister,  Mrs.  Baillie,  at  Hampstead,  August  5,  1845,  155.  Letter  on 
her  illness  to  Lady  Denman  from  Hereford,  on  Oxford  Circuit,  155.  Den- 
man reaches  town  from  circuit  too  late  to  be  present  at  her  death,  155. 
Letter  on  it  from  London  to  Lady  Denman,  August  7,  1845,  155.  Agnes 
and  Joanna  Baillie,  155.  Character  of  Mrs.  Baillie,  155.  Life-long  at- 
tachment and  correspondence  between  the  brother  and  sister,  156.  Den- 
man, in  the  Lords,  takes  no  part  in  party  or  purely  political  discussions, 
156.  Disapproves  of  Lord  John  Russell's  Corn  Law  Repeal  Letter  of 
November  22,  1845,  156.  His  views  on  the  short  ministerial  crisis  of  De- 
cember, 1845,  156.  Letters  on  these  matters  to  Captain  Denman  of  De- 
cember 15  and  25,  157.  Slave  Trade:  Decision  of  the  Court  of  Criminal 
Appeal  in  the  case  of  the  Feliddade,  December  II,  1845,  158.  Facts  of 
the  case,  158.  Arguments  and  judgment,  158.  Eleven  Judges  to  two, 
the  two  being  Lord  Denman  and  Baron  Platt,  158.  Denman's  short 
judgment,  159.  Apparent  ground  of  the  judgment  of  the  majority,  159. 
Ground  of  Denman's  judgment,  160.  The  decision  very  grievous  to 
Denman  from  its  apprehended  effects  on  the  Slave  Trade,  160.  He 
draws  up  a  paper  for  the  reform  of  the  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal,  160. 
Letter  to  Captain  Denman  on  the  Felicidade  case,  December  12,  1845, 

160.  To  same  on  same  subject,  December  25,  161.    Reasons  transmitted 
to  the  Home  Office  for  dissenting  from  the  judgment  of  the  majority, 

161.  1846:  Letter  to  Coleridge  of  May  21,  1846,  162.     Advice  against 
retirement,  163.   Want  of  wealth  no  subject  of  regret,  163.    The  struggle 
of  Corn  Law  Abolition,  163.     Peel's  resignation,  June  29,   1846,   163. 
Letter  to  Captain  Denman  on  it,  June  30,  163.     Marriage  of  his  third 
daughter  to  Captain  (afterwards  Admiral  Sir  R.  L.)  Baynes,  164.     Den- 
man on  North  Wales  Circuit,  Summer  Assizes  of  1846,  164.    Letter  from 
Dolgelly  to    Lady  Denman,  July  18,   1846,  164.     Reference  to    Rajah 
Brooke's  dealings  with  the   Malay  pirates,  164.     Debate  on  salaries  of 
Chief  Justices  in  the  Lords,  July  14,  1846,  165.    Letter  on  it  to  Coleridge 
from  Holyhead,  July  25, 1846,  165.     Facts  as  to  his  own  acceptance  of 
.£8,000  a  year,  instead  of  _^io,ooo,  165.     Denunciation  of  the  new  Whig 
ministry  for  pressing  forward  the  Sugar  Duties  Bill,  166.     Marriage  of 
his  last  unmarried  daughter,  166.     Opinion  of  grandchildren,  166.     Let- 
ter to  Captain  Denman  from  Chester,  August  2,  1846,  167.     Generous 


*iv  CONTENTS. 

tribute  to  Brougham,  167.  Denman's  own  view  and  position  as  to  Slave 
Trade,  167.  His  low  opinion  of  the  new  ministry,  167.  Letter  to  Lady 
Denman  from  Chester,  August  3,  1846,  167.  The  Government  Sugar  Du- 
ties Bill  of  1846,  168.  Lord  Clarendon's  speech,  168.  Lord  Denman's 
speech,  168.  The  Government  bill,  pressed  hastily  through  Parliament, 
becomes  law  before  the  end  of  the  session,  170.  Letter  of  Denman,  from 
Middleton,  to  his  daughter,  Lady  Baynes,  September  17,  1846,  170. 
Death  of  Sir  John  Williams,  on  September  16,  much  felt  by  Denman, 
170.  Sir  William  Erie  succeeds  him  as  Judge  of  the  Queen's  Bench,  171. 
Character  and  subsequent  career  of  Mr.  Justice  Erie,  171.  Denman's 
high  esteem  and  regard  for  him,  171. 

CHAPTER     XXXII. 

1847:  Abolition  of  Montem  at  Eton,  172.  Letter  on  it  to  Hodgson  from 
Hertford,  March  4,  1847,  172.  Speech  against  abolition  of  Transporta- 
tion in  House  of  Lords,  March  5,  1847,  173.  Its  deterrent  efficacy  as  a 
sentence,  and  other  advantages,  173.  Denman,  as  a  Criminal  Judge,  did 
his  best  to  make  sentences  of  transportation  deterrent,  174.  An  instance 
of  this,  174.  Second  letter  to  Hodgson  on  abolition  of  Montem,  Chelms- 
ford,  March  7,  1847,  175.  Montem  abolished,  175.  Testimony  of  an  old 
Etonian  as  to  its  abuses,  175.  Third  letter  to  Hodgson,  at  Brighton,  on 
Montem,  176.  Railways  near  Eton,  176.  Slough  and  Windsor  branch, 
176.  Denman  on  Home  Circuit,  Spring  Assizes,  1847, 177.  Letter  to  Lady 
Denman  from  Leeds  Castle,  March  21,  1847,  177.  The  "Joinville" 
panic,  177.  Fears  of  attack  by  a  French  fleet,  177.  Captain  Denman 
wants  to  write  a  pamphlet  on  it,  177.  His  father  dissuades  him  in  letter 
of  April  14,  1847,  178.  Improbability  of  any  attack  from  France,  178. 
The  shopkeeper  spirit  in  both  countries  too  strong  for  war,  179.  Den- 
man on  Midland  Circuit,  Summer  Assizes  of  1847,  179.  Letter  to  Col- 
eridge from  Middleton  after  conclusion  of  circuit,  179.  Mode  of  conduct- 
ing criminal  business  on  circuit,  179.  Bar  grown  to  be  more  a  state  of 
transition  than  a  status,  180.  Dislike  of  patronage  (revising  barrister- 
ships,  &c.)  vested  in  Judges,  180.  Reference  to  recent  general  election, 

180.  Regrets  defeat  of  Macaulay  and  Roebuck,  180.     Long  Vacation, 

181.  Wood-cutting  and  thinning  at  Middleton,  181. 

CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

1848  :  This  year  an  eventful  one  for  Denman,  182.  His  great  and  growing 
excitement  about  the  Slave  Trade,  182.  Distress  at  the  increasing  indif- 
ference to  its  horrors,  182.  His  earnestness  upon  it  a  life  and  death 
earnestness,  182.  Trial  at  Bar  of  Buron  v.  Denman,  183.  Judgment  of 
the  Court,  February  16,  1848,  183.  Denman's  remarks  upon  it  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  February  22,  1848,  184.  The  case  of  Dr.  Hampden  as 


CONTENTS.  xv 

Bishop-elect  of  Hereford,  184.  Application  for  mandamus  to  compel 
Archbishop  to  hear  opposers,  184.  Statement  of  the  case,  184.  Ante- 
cedents of  Dr.  Hampden,  185.  Remonstrance  of  the  thirteen  bishops, 
185.  Lord  John  Russell's  reply,  185.  Cong6  d'Elire  and  Letters  Missive, 
December  16,  1847,  186.  Election,  December  28,  186.  Confirmation  by 
the  Archbishop  fixed  for  January  II,  1848,  187.  Proceedings  at  the  con- 
firmation— Refusal  to  let  opposers  appear,  187.  Application  to  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench  for  a  mandamus,  January  14,  187.  Four  days'  argument, 
187.  Judgment  on  February  I,  1848,  187.  Court  equally  divided,  Pat- 
teson  and  Coleridge  for,  Denman  and  Erie  against,  the  application,  187. 
So  the  rule  was  discharged,  187.  Judgment  of  Lord  Denman,  187.  He 
repels  reflections  on  Cranmer,  188.  Comments  on  farcical  nature  of  the 
forms  both  at  election  and  confirmation,  189.  Grounds  his  judgment  on 
this,  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  opposers  never  have  been  heard  since  Act  25 
of  Henry  VIII.  was  passed,  189.  Mandamus  refused  from  regard, 
amongst  oilier  things,  to  the  peace  of  the  Church,  190.  Bishop  Phillpotts 
in  the  Lords  presents  petition  against  the  penalties  of  prsemunire  as  in- 
curred in  election  and  confirmation  of  bishops,  and  remarks  on  the  recent 
judgment  of  the  Queen's  Bench,  February  15,  1848,  191.  Speech  of  Lord 
Denman,  192.  He  explains  the  ground  o  bis  judgment,  and,  as  to  the 
penalties  of  prasmunire,  suggests  that  bishops  in  England,  a:;  in  Ireland, 
should  be  appointed  directly  by  the  Crown,  192.  Letter  to  Hodgson, 
February  19,  1848,  on  Bishop  Hampden's  case,  and  on  Huron  v.  Denman, 
194.  Speech  on  the  Slave  Trade  and  the  Squadron,  on  Lord  Aberdeen's 
motion  for  returns,  February  22,  1848,  195.  Slave  Trade  by  the  law  of 
nations  ipso  facto  piracy,  196.  Reference  to  the  case  of  Buron  v.  Den- 
ma>i,  196.  French  Revolution  of  February  24,  1848,  196.  Denman 
neither  sanguine  nor  alarmed,  196.  Remarks  on  Government  Bill  for 
Removal  of  Aliens,  April  13,  1848,  197.  On  "Crown  and  Government 
Security  Bill,"  April  19,  1848,  197.  Defends  the  English  people  from  the 
charge  "  of  a  growing  contempt  for  the  law,"  197.  Pays  a  tribute  to  the 
great  demonstration  of  April  8,  198.  Letter  from  Mr.  William  Kent  re- 
garding his  late  father,  the  venerable  Chancellor  Kent,  198.  Hutt's  Com- 
mittee sets  men's  minds  against  the  West  African  Squadron,  199.  Den- 
man's  excitement  on  the  subject,  199.  Letter  to  Captain  Denman  from 
Leicester,  (Midland  Circuit)  on  it,  July  29,  1848,  199.  To  same  on  same 
subject  from  Coventry,  August  2,  200.  Denman's  two  great  speeches  of 
August  22  and  28,  on  the  evidence  taken  by  Hutt's  committee,  200.  Let- 
ter written  to  Lady  Denman  from  the  House  of  Lords,  201.  Comments 
on  Dr.  Cliffe's  evidence,  "  Remove  the  dogs  !  "  and  on  that  of  British  offi- 
cers opposed  to  squadron,  203.  Repels  the  charge  of  calumny,  204.  Dr, 
Cliffe  again,  205.  These  two  speeches  save  the  Squadron,  205.  Publishes 
"  Letter  to  Lord  Brougham  on  the  final  extinction  of  the  Slave  Trade," 
206.  Apology  for  strong  language  on  the  subject,  206. 


xri  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

'  <49 :  Denman  on  Western  Circuit  with  Sir  E.  Vaughan  Williams,  Spring 
Assizes  of  1849,  207.  Heavy  business  and  failing  health,  207.  Recep- 
tion at  Strathfieldsaye,  208.  Letter  to  Lady  Denman,  March  n,  208. 
The  Duke's  cordial  hospitality,  209.  Recollections  of  his  conversation, 
209.  Letter  of  Sir  E.  V.  Williams,  209.  Party  to  meet  the  Judges,  209. 
Sir  E.  V.  Williams  "  Boswellizes  "  the  Duke,  209.  Topics  of  table  talk, 

209.  Macaulay's  History,  209.     Double  missions  at  foreign  courts,  210. 
Bourke,  Swedish  Envoy  at  Madrid,  210.     The  Copenhagen  expedition, 

210.  French  spy  system,  210.     State  of  France  in  1849,  2I°-    Louis  Na- 
poleon, 210.     Fusion  of  the  two  Bourbon  branches,  211.     Madame  de 
Stael,  2ir.     Bishop  Phillpotts,  211.     The  breakfast,  212.     The  Duke's 
new  daughter,  Jenny  Lind,  212.     Marchioness  of  Ely,  212.     The  Duke 
and  Jenny  Lind  in  the  Park,  212.     The  Duke's  rule  as  to  passing  ladies 
on  horseback,  212.    Jenny  Lind  declines  the  Duke's  assistance,  212.    Den- 
man's  remark  on  this,  212.  Last  meet  of  hounds  for  the  season  at  Strath- 
fieldsaye, 213.     The  Judges  at  Salisbury  miss  the  Sheriff,  213.     Letter  to 
Lady  Denman,  213.     A  window  in  Salisbury  Cathedral,  213.      To  same, 
213.     Patteson's  and  Coleridge's  country  houses,  March  18,  1849,  213. 
To  same  from  Boconnor,  near  Bodmin,  old  seat  of  Sir  Bevil  Grenville, 
March  25,  214.     To  same  from  Taunton,  April  i,  214.     Drive  with  Mr. 
and  Lady  Louisa  Fortescue.  214.     The  Queen's  Bench  in  the  woods,  214. 
The  South  Devon  Railway, 214.    Sir. Thomas  Acland's,  at  Killerton,  215. 
The  castle  at  Taunton,  215.    Last  letter  from  circuit,  215.     Handwriting 
of  these  letters  very  shaky,  215.     On  April  14,  after  returning  to  town, 
Denman  has  a  first  stroke  of  paralysis.  215.    Partially  recovers,  215.    Sits 
in  Queen's  Bench  during  Trinity  Term,  1849,  215.    Takes  chamber  busi- 
ness in  London,  215.    Staying  at  Hampstead  with  Captain  and  Mrs.  Hol- 
land, 216.     On  July  21  has  a  second  stroke  of  paralysis,  216.     Between 
the  first  and  second  strokes  speaks  twice  in  House  of  Lords,  216.     On 
June  13  on  the  Slave  Trade,  216.     On  June  22  brings  on,  for  the  third 
time,  an  Affirmation  instead  of  Oaths  Bill,  217.     Rejected  by  thirty-four 
to  ten,  217.     Law  as  to  objections  to  oaths,  on  religious  grounds,  altered 
by  Common  Law  Act  of  1854,  217.    As  to  objections  on  other  grounds  it 
still  needs  alteration,  217.     Denman  moved  from  London  to  Middleton, 
August  22,  1849,  218.      Letter  to  Coleridge  dictated  from  Hampstead, 
August  7,  1849,  218.    To  same  from  Middleton,  also  dictated,  October  I, 
1849,  219.     Fasts  for  cholera,  219.     Patteson's  ball,  219.     Patteson  and 
the  partridges,  220.     Denman's  view  of  his  own  case,  scrawled  by  him- 
self in  Greek,  220.     Letter  to  Coleridge,  dictated,  October  29,  220.     Sir 
B.  Brodie's  opinion  of  Denman's  state  in  October,  221.     Kind  exertions 
of  his  brother  Judges,  221.    Court  sits  without  him  all  Michaelmas  Term, 
222.     Judges  consult  Brodie  and  Holland  as  to  possibility  of  Denman's 


CONTENTS.  xvii 

resuming  work.  222.  Brougham  writes  from  Cannes,  December  18,  1849, 
strongly  urging  resignation,  223.  Brodie  and  Holland,  on  Christmas  Day, 
1849,  concur  in  advising  resignation,  224.  Denman  wishes  further  con- 
sultation, 225.  Letter  to  Denman  from  Wightman,  December  31,  1849, 
225.  High  tide,  226.  Philosophers  at  fault,  226.  Nose  and  knees  over 
the  fire  with  Hannah  More's  "  Memoirs,"  226.  1850:  Denman  returns 
to  town  and  consults  Dr.  Watson,  226.  Decisive  opinion  of  Dr.  Watson, 
January  22,  1850,  226.  Denman  determines  to  resign,  227.  Winds  up  all 
outstanding  judicial  business,  and  on  February  28, 1850,  sends  in  his  formal 
resignation,  228.  Previous  correspondence  with  Lord  John  Russell  as  to 
his  successor  elect,  Lord  Campbell,  228.  Grounds  of  Denman's  resent- 
ment against  Campbell,  228.  Letter  of  Lord  John  Russell,  of  January 
29,1850,229.  Observations  on  Denman's  protest  and  Campbell's  ap 
pointment,  230. 

CHAPTER     XXXV. 

Undivided  homage  paid  to  Denman  on  his  retirement,  232.  Selected  ad- 
dresses to  him,  232.  From  Attorney-General,  as  representing  the  Bar 
March  I,  1850,  232.  Reply  of  Lord  Denman,  234.  Address  from  gen- 
tlemen of  Derbyshire,  March  21,  234.  Reply,  containing  reference  to 
Dr.  Denman,  235.  Address  from  Common  Council  of  City  of  London, 
236.  Extract  from  reply,  237.  Resolution  of  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  238. 
Reply,  with  reference  to  Lord  Holt  and  the  Privilege  question,  238.  Let- 
ter from  Judges  of  Queen's  Bench,  April  15,  1850,  and  reply,  239.  Let- 
ter of  Mr.  Baron  Parke,  from  Midland  Circuit,  March  12,  1850,  241. 
Same  day  from  Mr.  Justice  Talfourd,  from  Salisbury,  with  a  sonnet,  242. 
Denman's  reply,  243.  Extract  of  Letter  from  Wightma.n  on  Norfolk 
Circuit,  April  7,  1850,  244.  From  Mr.  John  Leycester  Adolphus,  reporter 
of  Queen's  Bench,  April  23,  1850,  244.  From  Ed\var.d  Everett  (late 
United  States  Minister  in  England),  May  14,  1850,  246.  Reply,  246. 
Denman  leaves  London  for  Middleton,  247.  His  health  improves,  247. 
Verses  to  his  wife  on  forty-sixth  anniversary  of  their  wedding,  247. 
Letter  to  Coleridge,  from  Middleton,  September  2,  1850,  248.  Wilde's 
appointment  as  Chancellor,  248.  Death  of  Shadwell,  V.  C.,  248.  Ex- 
tension of  County  Court's  jurisdiction  to  .£50,  249.  Letter  to  Coleridge, 
December  17,  1850,  249.  Rolfea"nice  little  Peer,"  250.  Opinion  of 
Parke  and  his  crotchets,  250.  Denman's  difficulty  of  writing  continues, 
250.  Letter  to  his  little  grandson,  Henry  Denman  Macaulay,  as  to 
"  Right  "  and  "  Write,"  Christmas  Day,  1850,  251. 

CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

Denman's  health  improved  in  1851  and  1852,  252.     Writes  on  questions  of 
Law   Amendment — "Brougham's"   Act    of  1851,    enabling    parties   to 
it. — 2 


xviii  CONTENTS. 

suits  to  give  evidence,  252.  Denman  s  able  letter  in  the  "  Law  Review," 
of  April  21,  1851,  on  this  measure,  252.  His  remarks  in  it  on  the  habit- 
ual opposition  of  Judges  to  changes  in  the  Law,  253.  Principle  of  ex- 
clusion of  evidence  from  interest  unsound,  254.  Letters  to  the  Lord 
Chancellor  on  Law  Reform,  256.  1852  :  Denman's  last  speech  in  the 
House  of  Lords  (May  27,  1852)  on  Law  Reform,  and  in  praise  of  the 
Common  Law  Procedure  Commissioners,  256.  Correspondence  with 
Brougham  on  Law  Reform  and  other  matters,  in  1851  and  1852,  257. 
General  character  of  Brougham's  letters  of  this  period,  257.  Brougham 
to  Denman,  from  Walmer  Castle,  June,  1851,  258.  High  regard  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  for  Denman,  258.  Letters  of  Brougham,  from 
Cannes,  December  8th  and  23rd,  1851,  258.  On  the  Coup  d'Etat  of 
January  13,  1852,  259.  On  Louis  Napoleon's  position  and  plans,  259. 
Lord  Palmerston's  dismissal  in  1851,  259.  How  received  on  the  Conti- 
nent, 260.  Brougham  from  Boulogne,  January  28,  1852,  on  the  state  of 
France,  260.  Lord  John  Russell  resigns,  February  20,  1852,  260. 
Brougham's  letter  on  state  of  parties,  and  on  the  character  of  Lord 
Derby,  261. 

CHAPTER    XXXVI  I. 

Death  of  Lady  Denman  on  June  28,  1852,  262.  Denman's  account  of  her 
last  moments,  262.  His  inscription  over  her  grave  in  Dagenham  Church- 
yard, 263.  He  goes  with  his  third  son  and  family  to  Scarborough,  264. 
Afterwards  to  Nice  for  the  winter,  264.  The  subject  of  Slave  Trade 
and  Slavery  still  haunts  him,  264.  He  reads  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  264. 
Its  effect  on  him,  264.  He  writes  and  publishes  some  ill-advised  letters 
on  "  Uncle  '  Tom's  Cabin,"  "  Bleak  House,"  "  Slavery  and  the  Slave 
Trade,"  264.  Letter  from  Charles  Dickens  to  Mrs.  Cropper  in  reference 
to  this  matter,  January  21,  1853,  265.  Death  of  Duke  of  Wellington, 
September  16,  1852,  265.  Denman's  lines  on  it,  266.  He  arrives  in 
Nice  in  November,  1852,  266.  The  Slave  Trade  excitement  still  con- 
tinues, 266.  He  receives  a  long  and  eloquent  letter  from  Mrs.  Stowe,  on 
American  Slavery,  266.  Soon  after,  on  December  2,  he  is  seized  with  his 
third  and  final  stroke  of  paralysis,  269.  Strange  consequences  of  this 
attack,  269.  Loses  all  power  of  communicating  with  others,  not  only  by 
speech,  but  by  writing,  269.  Account  by  Mr.  Richard  Denman  of  his 
father's  state,  269.  Also  by  Mrs.  Cropper,  270. 

CHAPTER      XXXVIII. 

Denman  moved  from  Nice  to  England  in  April,  1853,  271.  Returned  to 
Middleton,  where  Mrs.  Hodgson  and  her  children  were  then  residing 
271.  Death  of  Francis  Hodgson,  December  29,  1852,  271.  Denman  at 


CONTENTS.  xix 

Middleton  from  April,  1853,  to  April,  1854,  272.  Mrs.  Cropper's  recollec- 
tions of  his  first  arrival  there,  ±72.  His  wonderful  suavity  and  fortitude 
under  his  affliction,  272.  Love  of  reading,  272.  The  Bible,  272. 
Shakespeare,  272,  Corneille,  272.  Racine,  272.  Still  greater  love  of 
being  read  to — The  "Times"  daily,  "without  skipping,"  273.  Still 
keeps  a  sense  of  fun  and  a  faculty  for  laughter,  273.  The  little  grand- 
daughter reads  hoax  "  ho-ax,"  273.  Has  himself  dressed  daily  for  dinner 
with  the  nicest  care,  273.  Fond  of  drives,  flowers,  pictures,  and  fine 
views,  273.  He  is  moved  to  Stoke  Albany  in  April,  1854,  274.  Loving 
care  and  devotion  of  his  eldest  son  and  his  eldest  son's  first  wife,  274. 
Old  friends  write  to  him,  knowing  how  it  pleases  him,  274.  Note  from 
the  venerable  Samuel  Rogers,  March  14,  1853,  274.  Another  from  same, 
September  28,  1853,  274.  From  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  February  17, 
1854,  275.  Beautiful  and  touching  letter  from  Mrs.  Stowe,  276.  The 
end  comes  suddenly  at  last,  277.  His  last  moments,  277.  His  death, 
September  22,  1854,  277.  A  little  over  seventy-five  years  and  seven 
months,  277.  He  was  buried  in  Stoke  Albany  Churchyard,  277.  Me- 
morial window  at  Penshurst,  277.  Suggestions  for  a  memorial  bust  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  278. 


LIFE 


OF 


LORD    DENMAN. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

PEERAGE  —  BARON  DENMAN  OF  DOVEDALE. 
A.  D.   1834.    yET.  55. 


IN  the  Spring  Assizes  of  1834  Denman  presided  on 
the  Norfolk  Circuit,  his  companion  being  Sir  John 
Vaughan,  then  one  of  the  Barons  of  the  Exchequer, 
but  shortly  after  removed  to  the  Common  Pleas.1 

It  was  while  on  this  circuit  that  the  Chief  Justice  was 
raised  to  the  Peerage  by  the  title  of  Baron  Denman  of 
Dovedale. 

The  immediate  moving  cause  of  this  elevation  to  the 
Peerage  was  the  urgent  want  felt  by  Brougham  of  ad- 
ditional legal  assistance  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Early 
in  the  spring  of  this  year  Brougham  had  twice  written 
on  the  subject  to  Lord  Grey,4  pressing  the  appointment 
very  strongly,  intimating  that  Denman  would  not  decline 
it,  stating  even  the  title,  Denman  of  Dovedale,  that  he 
wished  to  take,  and  winding  up  by  the  assurance,  "  My 

1  Sir  John  Vaughan,  long  famous  at  the  Bar  as  Mr.  Sergeant  Vaughan  ; 
born  1768  ;  called  to  the  Bar,  1781  ;  Sergeant,  1799  ;  Baron  of  Exchequer, 
1827  ;  Common  Pleas,  Easter  Term,  1834  ;  died  1839,  set.  71.  Foss's 
"  Lives  of  the  Judges,"  vol.  ix.  p.  288. 

8  See  the  two  letters  in  Brougham's  "  Memoirs,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  337,  340. 
n.—  I 


2  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834. 

belief  is  that  it  will  be  one  of  the  most  popular  things 
that  you  ever  did.' 

Lord  Grey  in  consequence  wrote  to  Denman  in  the 
following  terms : 

"  Downing  Street :  March  19,  1834. 

"My  dear  Lord  Chief  Justice, — The  Chancellor  has 
expressed  to  me  his  anxious  desire  to  obtain  your  assist- 
ance in  the  House  of  Lords,  where  he  is  indeed  much  in 
want  of  it;  and  I  feel  myself  of  how  much  benefit  it 
would  generally  be  to  the  Government.  He  states  to  me 
also  your  consent  to  the  immediate  adoption  of  the 
necessary  measures  for  this  purpose. 

"  I  am  therefore  prepared  to  propose  to  the  King  your 
elevation  to  the  Peerage,  and  shall  have  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  doing  so  both  from  personal  and  public  mo- 
tives. 

"  But  before  I  speak  to  His  Majesty  on  the  subject  I 
feel  it  to  be  necessary  that  I  should  have  your  personal 
sanction,  and  shall  hope  to  receive  it  by  the  return  of 
the  post ;  I  say  by  the  return  of  the  post  because  the 
King  goes  out  of  town  on  Friday,  and  I  should  wish  to 
make  the  proposal  to  him  that  morning  before  he  leaves 
St.  James's. 

"  I  am,  with  the  truest  regard, 

"  Ever  yours  most  faithfully, 

"GREY." 

Denman's  answer  was  immediate,  and  ran  as  follows: 

"  Bury  St.  Edmunds  :  March  2O,  1834. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — Allow  me  to  express  my  warmest 
acknowledgments  for  the  honor  which  you  tender  me, 
and  which  I  accept  in  the  hope  of  rendering  some  public 
service  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

"The  engagements  of  my  own  court  will  hardly  allow 
of  my  rendering  much  assistance  in  the  judicial  business 
there ;  but  I  will  be  happy  to  contribute  to  the  extent 
of  my  power. 

"  You  will  excuse  my  requesting  that  if  the  proposal 
should  be  unacceptable  to  the  highest  quarter  [the 
King],  you  may  not  be  prevented  from  withdrawing  it  by 
the  communication  you  have  made  to  me.  Nothing 
could  give  me  more  pain  than  to  cause  any  difficulty  in 
conducting  the  administration. 


1831.]   BARON    DEN  MAN    OF    DOVEDALE.          3 

"  I  must  also  assure  you  (though  I  am  writing  in  a 
narrow  corner  of  time)  that  the  highest  satisfaction  I  de- 
rive, not  only  from  your  present  kindness,  but  from  that 
which  led  you  to  place  me  in  my  present  office,  arises 
from  the  evidence  of  your  esteem  and  confidence. 
"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  my  dear  Lord, 

"  Your  most  obliged  and  faithful, 

"THOMAS  DENMAN." 

Denman  having  thus  given  the  required  sanction,  the 
Prime  Minister  lost  no  time  in  submitting  the  matter  to 
the  King,  with  what  result  appears  from  the  following 
letter: 

"Downing  Street:  March  21,  1834. 

"  Dear  Lord  Chief  Justice, — I  am  just  returned  from 
St.  James's.  The  King  did  not  make  an  objection,  but 
at  once  assented  in  the  most  gracious  manner,  express- 
ing himself  in  terms  of  great  approbation  of  your  con- 
duct since  you  have  been  Chief  Justice,  which,  he  said, 
he  felt  more  bound  to  do  from  having  been  originally 
opposed  to  your  appointment. 

"  I  make  this  communication  with  increased  pleasure, 
as  it  is  most  gratifying  to  the  sincere  feefcngs  of  friend- 
ship which  I  entertain  for  you. 

"  I  cannot  conclude  without  thanking  you  for  the  kind 
expressions  contained  in  your  letter,  which  I  received 
this  morning. 

"  I  remain,  dear  Lord  Chief  Justice, 

"  Yours  very  faithfully, 

"  GREY. 

"  P.  S.  Orders  are  given  at  the  Home  Office  for  the 
immediate  preparation  of  your  patent."  1 

Denman's  answer  followed  immediately : 

"  Bury  St.  Edmunds  :  March  22,  1834. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — I  must  trouble  you  with  my  thanks 
for  your  prompt  communication.  The  generous  approval 
of  His  Majesty  enhances  my  satisfaction,  as  much  as  his 

'Extract  from  "London  Gazette,"  March  22,  1834:  "The  King  has  been 
pleased  to  direct  letters  patent  to  be  passed  under  the  Great  Seal,  granting 
the  dignity  of  a  Baron  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
to  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  Thomas  Denman,  Knight,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench,  and  the  heirs  male  of  his  body  lawfully  begotten,  by  the 
name,  style,  and  title  of  Barou  Denman  of  Dovedale,  in  the  county  of 
Derby." 


4  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834. 

former  reluctance  does  my  sense  of  gratitude  to  your- 
self. 

"  Most  faithfully,  my  dear  Lord,  yours, 

"  T.  DENMAN." 

On  the  same  day,  Saturday,  March  22,  Brougham 
communicated  the  intelligence  to  Lady  Denman  in  the 
following  note : 

"  Dear  Lady  D.,— I  ought  to  have  let  you  know  yes- 
terday that  H.  M.  has  been  graciously  pleased  to  make 
the  C.  J.  a  peer,  and  he  will  be  accordingly  created  in 

the  course  of  to-day. 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  H.  BROUGHAM." 

The  answer  of  the  new  peeress,  which,  as  Mrs.  Baillie 
remarks,  is  "  a  striking  instance  of  her  perfect  simplicity 
of  character,"  ran  thus : 

"  My  dear  Lord  Brougham, — I  was  never  so  much  sur- 
prised in  my  life  as  when  I  received  your  note.  Thank 
you  for  breaking  the  news  to  me,  and  pray  tell  me 
whether  my  husband  is  coming  to  town. 

"  Believe  me,  very  sincerely  yours, 

"THEODOSIA  DENMAN." 
Brougham  answered : 

"Dear  Lady  D.,— I  see  the  Ch.  J.  is  well  worthy  of 
promotion  to  be  an  hereditary  councillor,  for  he  can 
keep  a  secret.  He  will  not,  I  suppose,  be  in  town  any 
the  sooner  for  being  a  Lord. 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"  H.  BROUGHAM." 

Denman  in  the  meanwhile,  on  the  same  day,  directly 
the  appointment  was  rendered  certain,  had  written  to 
his  wife  from  Bury  St.  Edmunds  the  following  letter, 
which  she  of  course  did  not  receive  till  the  23rd,  the  day 
after  Brougham's  communication : 

"Bury:  March  22,  1834. 

"  My  dearest  love, — The  enclosed  papers  [Lord  Grey's 
letters  and  copies  of  his  own  replies]  will,  I  think,  in- 
terest you.  I  have  marked  them  in  the  order  in  which 
they  should  be  read. 

"  Most  likely  you  have  already  heard  some  reports  on 
the  subject,  and  you  may  feel  a  little  angry  that  I  did 
not  consult  you.  But  the  strictest  secresy  was  enjoined, 


1834.]  BARON    DEN  MAN    OF    DOVEDALE.          5 

and  I,  not  feeling  quite  sure  that  the  Principal  [the 
King]  would  acquiesce,  insisted  upon  it  that  the  matter 
should  be  dropped  rather  than  at  all  pressed  upon  him. 

"  His  handsome,  generous  conduct  enhances  my  satis- 
faction, as  much  as  his  former  reluctance  [about  the 
Chief  Justiceship]  does  my  gratitude  to  Lord  Grey. 

"  I  most  sincerely  hope  this  elevation  will  give  you 
pleasure;  nobody  ever  deserved  honor  or  prosperity 
better. 

"  I  don't  suppose  the  young  ladies  will  require   any 
apology  or  consolation.     I  think  my  sister  [Mrs.  Baillie] 
will  like  to  hear  of  this,  and  you  to  tell  her. 
"  I  am,  my  dearest  love, 

"  Your  most  affectionate  and  faithful  husband. 

"  I  hope  you  approve  of  our  taking  our  old  names  of 
Dovedale,  in  the  county  of  Derby." 

Lady  Denman's  letter  to  her  husband  after  first  re- 
ceiving Brougham's  communication  has  not  been  pre- 
served: on  Sunday  23,  Denman  writes  to  her  from  Nor- 
wich, acknowledging  it : 

"A  thousand  thanks  for  your  letter:  in  the  course  of 
the  day  you  will  receive  a  more  formal  announcement  of 
our  change  of  condition,  which  I  am  very  glad  you  do 
not  dislike.  I  shall  have  the  power  of  franking  on  Wed- 
nesday." 

On  the  Wednesday  accordingly,  the  26th,  he  writes 
again  from  Norwich : 

"  I  will  not  address  you  as  I  had  intended, '  my  peer-less 
peeress,'  because  that  might  look  as  though  you  had  lost 
your  new-made  peer.  What  a  strange  state  of  things! 
but  it  will  soon  be  as  familiar  as  any  other  of  our  numer- 
ous changes  of  condition. 

"This  [the  Norfolk]  is  reckoned  the  easiest  of  the  cir- 
cuits, and  generally  lasts  the  shortest  time;  but  somehow 
or  other,  there  is  a  dragging  tendency  in  these  times, 
which  keeps  one  a  monstrous  long  while  on  the  judg- 
ment-seat. I  have  done  my  criminal  work,  but  Vaugh- 
an's  list  is  very  heavy,  and  I  must  give  some  aid. 

"Coke1  has  been  here — the  greatest  of  all  compliments 
— and  I  must  keep  my  promise  of  spending  a  short  time 
at  Holkham.  You  would  wonder  at  his  spirits.   The  day 
1  Coke  of  Holkham,  then  in  his  eighty-second  year. 


6  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834. 

before  yesterday  he  dined  here ;  I  was  unluckily  kept  in 
court.  Yesterday,  he  sent  word  that  he  would  take  coffee 
with  us;  I  was  again  in  court  till  past  ten.  He  came  at 
eleven,  and  kept  us  gossiping  till  near  one;  then  he 
went  and  made  the  under-sheriff,  his  host,  sit  up  till 
near  two.  His  boys  came  from  school  to-day,  and  he 
has  taken  them  home.  Pretty  well  for  82  years  of  age." 

To  his  third  daughter,  Fanny  (Lady  Baynes),  then  at 
Stony  Middleton,  Denman  wrote  as  follows,  immediately 
after  his  return  to  town  and  while  awaiting  his  first  in- 
troduction to  the  House  of  Lords. 

"  Dear  and  Honorable  Fanny, — Did  you  ever  read 
Pepys'  Memoirs?  He  describes  his  own  dignity  by  say- 
ing that  when  he  went  to  church  in  his  native  village  the 
minister  addressed  his  congregation,  at  the  opening  of 
the  service,  as '  Right  Honorable  and  Dearly  Beloved/  &c. 

"  Being  now  in  a  remarkably  bad  humor,  and  you  be- 
ing the  person  in  the  world  I  should  select  to  vent  it  on, 
I  take  you  in  hand,  sitting  in  the  Chancellor's  room, 
waiting  for  two  Barons  to  arrive  to  introduce  me  into 
this  noble  House,  there  to  take  oaths  and  my  seat. 

"Your  mother  was  so  much  in  love  with  you  for  your 
letter  on  this  subject  of  elevation,  that  she  copied  it  out 
for  me  while  on  the  circuit.  You  view  things  in  their 
true  light,  and  must  be  acknowledged  (spite  of  my  ill- 
temper)  to  be  a  sensible  as  well  as  a  good  girl. 

"  Not  only  will  I  send  you  the  newspaper  which  relates 
the  trial  of  the  mineral  murder  (if  to  be  found),  but  I 
shall  enclose  the  learned  judge's  report  of  the  same  trial, 
you  will  like  his  letter  for  other  reasons,  and,  indeed,  the 
mode  in  which  the  news  has  been  received  by  my  brother 
judges  is  a  most  agreeable  feature  in  the  case.1 

"  Some  of  the  peers,  too,  are  very  civil,  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk  having  remained  in  London  on  purpose  to  offi- 
ciate as  Earl  Marshal.  Do  not  infer  from  some  being 

1  The  only  communication  of  this  kind  that  has  been  preserved,  is  one 
written  from  Warwick  on  April  6,  1834,  by  his  excellent  colleague,  Sir  Nic- 
olas Conyngham  Tindal,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas  :  "  No  one  of 
your  friends,"  says  the  Chief  Justice,  "  can  look  at  your  recent  and  deserved 
elevation  to  the  Peerage  with  more  satisfaction  than  myself."  Denman  had 
always  the  most  sincere  esteem  and  regard  for  the  high  and  endearing  qual- 
ities of  his  brother  Chief. 


1831.]   BARON    DEN  MAN    OF    DO  V ED  ALE.  ^ 

civil  that  others  are  the  contrary ;  I  have  seen  and  heard 
from  but  few,  but  all  were  civil. 

"  Dick  [his  son  Richard,  who  had  been  on  circuit  with 
him  as  Judge's  Marshal]  came  up  with  me  from  Hoik- 
ham  yesterday,  having  left  his  heart  with  Margery  Coke, 
an  affectionate  little  beauty,  just  two  years  old.1  He 
and  the  Honorable  Miss  Denman  [Elizabeth,  then  his 
eldest  unmarried  daughter]  both  bear  their  honors 
meekly. 

"  Do  you  approve  keeping  the  name?  Do  you  like  the 
place?  [Denman  of  Dovedale.] 

"  As  to  your  balustrades  [this  refers  to  some  improve- 
ment in  the  grounds  at  Stony  Middleton],  I  think  we 
had  better  see  how  things  look  when  we  get  there,  and 
then  choose  our  pattern.  Yours  is  pretty,  but  I  am  dis- 
posed to  prefer  open  work,  with  something  of  the  trefoil, 
perhaps,  within  it.  I  know  you  like  Frost's  [head-gar- 
dener] style.  I  sent  him  some  Canada  poplars  from 
Holkham  yesterday. 

"  Ever  your  affectionate  father, 

"  DENMAN." 

From  the  tone  of  these  letters  it  will  be  seen  that 
Denman,  with  his  usual  sanguine  cheerfulness,  looking 
principally  if  not  exclusively  to  the  brighter  side  of 
things,  was  unaffectedly  gratified  at  his  elevation  to  the 
Peerage.  But,  as  his  sister,  Mrs.  Baillie,  observes  in  her 
biographical  sketch,  "  to  some  of  those  who  loved  him 
best  this  accession  of  rank  did  not  afford  the  same  un- 
mingled  satisfaction  as  they  had  felt  at  his  former  eleva- 
tion, partly  because  they  felt  his  want  of  fortune  to  sup- 
port a  Peerage,  and  his  want  of  power  to  save  anything 
considerable  in  his  present  situation ;  but  still  more  be- 
cause they  feared  that  the  additional  duties  thus  required 
of  him  might  have  a  prejudicial  effect  on  his  health, 
notwithstanding  the  still  unimpaired  and  vigorous  state 
both  of  his  bodily  and  mental  powers." 

Neither  of  these  apprehensions  were  unfounded.  Den- 
man's  professional  emoluments  while  at  the  Bar,  though 
lately  considerable,  had  never  been  on  the  same  scale  as 
those  of  Scarlett,  Sugden,  and  several  others  of  his  lead- 
ing contemporaries,  and  they  were  more  than  absorbed 

1  Born,  therefore,  when  her  father  was  eighty. 


3  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834. 

by  the  expenses  incident  to  a  numerous  family,  and  a 
style  of  living  which,  without  being  profuse,  was  gener- 
ous and  liberal.  He  had  never  been  economical,  was 
frequently  embarrassed,  saved  nothing,  and  died  poor.1 
His  case  was  one  of  several  which  seem  to  afford  a 
strong  if  not  an  irresistible  argument  for  the  expediency 
of  vesting  in  the  Crown  a  power  of  conferring  peerages- 
for  life. 

Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  his  exertions  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  added  to  the  onerous  and  ever  increasing 
labors  of  the  judgment  seat,  proved  in  the  end  too  much 
for  his  strength,  and  greatly  contributed  to  bring  on  that 
prostration  of  mind  and  body  which  compelled  his  re- 
tirement from  judicial  and  public  life  at  an  earlier  period 
than  might  otherwise  have  been  necessary. 

Shortly  after  his  accession  to  the  Peerage,  Denman  re- 
moved from  his  former  house  in  Russell  Square  to  an- 
other in  a  more  expensive  and  fashionable  neighborhood, 
having  purchased  the  lease  of  No.  38  Portland  Place,  a 
large  and  stately  mansion  of  the  mid-Georgian  aera,  well 
fitted  to  be  the  residence  of  a  Chief  Justice  of  England.* 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  to  his  daugh- 
ter, the  Honorable  Mrs.  Wright,  the  accomplished 
wife  of  the  translator  of  Dante,  which  was  written  from 
the  library  of  the  House  of  Lords,  not  long  after  his 
elevation.  The  earlier  passages  refer  to  some  popular 
publication  of  the  day  which  his  daughter  had  brought 
to  his  notice  as  containing  a  panegyric  on  his  public  and 
professional  career. 

"  I  am  always  delighted  with  your  remembrances,  and 
have  a  few  moments  in  the  library  of  the  House  of  Lords 
to  thank  you  for  your  affectionate  letter.  I  rejoice  to 
accompany  you  in  your  drives  along  the  road  in  your 
open  carriage  with  the  merry  group  following.  These 
are  more  agreeable  circumstances  than  the  panegyrics  in 
the  book  you  name,  which  is  so  very  ignorant  and  daring 
in  the  statement  of  facts  that  its  authority  is  of  no  high 

1  Denman,  as  appears  from  a  letter  written  to  his  man  of  business,  March 
22,  1834,  was  obliged  to  borrow  the  sum  (^550)  payable  for  the  expenses  of 
th?  patent  conferring  his  peerage. 

*  This  house  was  not  given  up  till  after  the  death  of  Lady  Denman  in 
i **  t ;  it  was  the  last  of  Denman 's  London  residences. 


1834-]  BARON    DEN  MAN    OF    DOVEDALE.          9 

value  in  any  respect.  It  is,  however,  far  pleasanter  to 
me  to  receive  the  praise  even  of  such  a  writer  than  to 
encounter  his  abuse,  and  I  ought  to  be  thankful  to  him, 
if  not  for  his  praises,  at  least  for  the  feelings  to  which  he 
has  given  birth  in  your  mind. 

"  My  lot  has,  indeed,  been  fortunate,  far  above  my 
talents  or  merits  of  any  kind.  But  there  is  one  merit  of 
a  kind  entirely  within  one's  own  command,  to  which  no 
man  could  ever  more  boldly  lay  claim — the  determination 
to  do  what  is  right,  whenever  that  can  be  discovered.  It  is 
satisfactory  to  obtain  credit  for  precisely  the  quality  on 
which  I  pride  myself  most.  Another  happy  circum- 
stance is  the  cordial  concurrence,  and,  I  believe,  full  con- 
fidence and  respect  of  my  brother  judges,  all,  (except 
Williams)1  nearly  strangers  to  me  when  I  was  made 
Chief  Justice. 

"  I  must  conclude,  not  because  I  have  no  more  to  say, 
but  because  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  are  in  full  discussion  of  the  revenues  of  the 
Duchy  of  Cornwall,  which,  it  seems,  are  collected  at  a 
cost  of  44  per  cent. — a  good  illustration  of  the  old 
proverb,  that  '  the  King's  cheese  goes  in  parings.' " 

In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1834  a  succession  of 
ministerial  changes  took  place  which  must  have  led 
Denman  to  congratulate  himself  that  his  post  was  no 
longer  planted  on  the  shifting  quicksands  of  party,  but 
on  the  firm  resting-ground  of  a  permanent  appointment. 
Lord  Grey's  resignation,  on  July  9,  was  followed  by  that 
of  Lord  Melbourne  and  the  whole  Whig  Ministry  on  No- 
vember 15,  and  a  few  days  after  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
assumed  the  temporary  supervision  of  all  the  affairs  of 
the  realm,  a  charge  which  he  continued  to  exercise  till 
the  return  from  the  Continent,  on  December  9,  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel, — "  the  great  man  in  a  great  position,  sum- 
moned from  Rome  to  govern  England."  2 

During  the  interregnum,  Denman,  by  virtue  of  his 
office  as  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  was  called 
upon  to  hold  provisionally  the  seal  of  the  Chancellorship 
of  the  Exchequer;  and  he  held  it  accordingly  from  No- 
vember 28  till  December  10,  when  Peel,  the  day  after 

1  Williams  had  succeeded  Parke  as  a  Judge  of  the  King's  Bench  in  Eastef 
Term,  1834.  *  Coningsby. 


10 


LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1834. 


his  arrival  in  England,  was  appointed  to  the  office,  in 
conjunction  with  that  of  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.' 

The  following  note  from  the  Duke  of  Wellington  to 
the  Chief  Justice  relates  to  and  explains  this  matter : 

"  Downing  Street:  November  27,  1834. 

"  My  Lord, — The  King  has  just  informed  me  that  Lord 
Spencer  will  resign  into  His  Majesty's  hands  to-morrow 
the  seal  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  at  3  P.  M. 

"  The  practice  has  been  to  give  the  custody  of  the  seal 
to  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  till  a 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  should  be  appointed. 

"  I  request  your  Lordship,  therefore,  will  be  so  kind  as 
to  attend  the  King  at  3  P.  M.  to-morrow,  in  order  to  re- 
ceive the  seal  of  the  Exchequer. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  my  lord, 
"Your lordship's  most  obedient,  humble  servant. 

"  WELLINGTON." 

Just  before  Lord  Melbourne's  first  administration  went 
out  of  office  Lord  Auckland,  then  first  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty, had,  greatly  to  Denman's  delight,  appointed  his 
second  son,  Joseph,  then  a  young  Lieutenant  in  his  24th 
year,  to  the  command  of  the  "  Curlew"  a  lo-gun  brig, 
which  for  so  young  an  officer  was  a  very  good  appoint- 
ment. 

The  first  reformed  Parliament  was  dissolved  on  1 
cember  20,  1834,  and  the  new  Parliament  met  on  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1835.  The  swearing-in  of  members  occupied 
till  Tuesday,  the  24th,  on  which  day  the  King  went  in 
state  to  the  House  of  Lords  and  delivered  the  royal 
speech.  Two  days  later  Denman,  who  was  then  pre- 
siding at  the  London  sittings  after  Hilary  Term,  wrote 
from  Court  as  follows,  to  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Wright : 

"Guildhall:  Thursday,  February  26,  1835. 

"  Dearest  Doe, — As  you  say  that  my  advice  is  so  use- 
ful and  is  always  the  same,  I  must  refer  you  in  case  of 
need  '  to  my  last-esteemed  favor,'  as  the  mercantile  cor- 
respondence runs,  where  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  find  it 

1  Peel,  soon  after  the  meeting  of  the  new  Parliament,  found  the  struggle 
to  carry  on  the  administration  against  an  adverse  majority  a  hopeless  task, 
and  after  a  little  less  than  four  months  continuance  in  office  resigned  on 
April  8,  1835. 


1834-]    BARON    DEN  MAN    OF    DOVEDALE.         n 

written,  '  I  am  glad  you  are  very  well  and  very  happy, 
only  take  care  not  to  be  too  well  or  too  happy,'  or  words 
to  the  like  tenor  and  effect.  But  I  take  the  opportunity 
of  the  Solicitor-General l  giving  the  jury  a  long  history 
of  a  case  not  very  entertaining  to  repeat  my  good  advice 
and  exhortations. 

"  I  have  a  very  heavy  entry  at  Guildhall,  and  some 
fear  that  some  of  the  causes  may  not  be  tried  in  the  time 
appointed.  This  would  grieve  me,  as  I  have  completely 
destroyed  that  gigantic  monster  called  '  Arrear/  who 
was  always  obstructing  and  defeating  justice,  and  tearing 
out  the  bowels  of  unhappy  plaintiffs  and  defendants  by 
accumulated  expense  and  long  solicitude.  I  have  intimated 
my  resolution  to  sit  late  both  to-day  and  to-morrow, 
to  the  no  small  dismay  of  the  M.P.'s  of  the  Bar,  who  are 
groaning  under  their  double  duties. 

"  I  suppose  you  see  the  Parliamentary  Debates,  and 
observe  that  His  Majesty  was  well  received  in  passing 
through  the  streets,2  as  were  his  ministers  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  but  rather  differently,  it  appears,  in  the  Commons. 
The  only  question  is  how  large  the  majority  will  be 
against  them  :  the  '  shabbies  '  are  a  large  section  ;  so  also 
are  the  '  poor  creatures,'  to  which  latter  party  Holland 
seems  likely  to  give  in  his  adhesion 

"  I  suspended  my  epistle  while  the  evidence  was  being 
given  :  now  it  is  over,  and  Mr.  Attorney-General3  is  stat- 
ing his  defense  with  not  a  little  fierceness.  He  is  clearly 
right,  and  I  have  tried  to  stop  the  cause  in  his  favor ;  but 
the  jury  still  doubt.  He  bestows  tediousness  in  a  spirit 
of  lavish  prodigality:  Sed fugit  interea fugit  irrevocabile 
tempus. 

"  Brougham  was  very  good  in  the  House  of  Lords  on 
Tuesday  night.4  The  Chancellor  [Lyndhurst]  evidently 
seeks  to  recommend  himself  to  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land and  the  Ultras  by  his  personal  rudeness  to  the  man 

1  Sir  William  Follett,  appointed  Solicitor-Genera)  December  17,  1834. 

*  To  open  the  new  Parliament  on  February  24,  1835. 

1  Sir  F.  Pollock,  appointed  Attorney-General,  December  17,  1834 ;  what 
follows  is  a  very  graphic  picture  of  the  late  admirable  and  excellent  Chief 
Baron  as  a  Nisi  Prius  advocate. 

4  February  24,  first  night,  in  the  Lords,  of  debate  on  the  Address. 


12  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1834. 

[Brougham]  who  in  his  utmost  need,  made  him  Chief 
Baron : 

Ejectum  littore,  egentem 
Except,  et  regni  demens  in  parte  locavi. 

At  the  same  time  he  seeks  to  recommend  himself  to  the 
country  by  following  with  feeble  steps  and  at  a  humble 
distance,  Brougham's  great  principles  of  Legal  Reform.  I 
don't  thing  he  will  lead  a  quiet  and  happy  life  for  it. 

"  I  have  not  yet  taken  my  seat  this  Session ;  had  I 
done  so  on  the  first  night  I  could  not  have  helped  taking 
some  part  in  the  debate — probably  much  better  not. 

"The  jury  have,  at  length,  concurred  in  my  view,  and 
the  Solicitor-General  gives  up  the  point. 

"  We  start  with  another  cause  at  ten  minutes  after 
four.1 

"  Ever  your  affectionate  father." 

1  This,  if  the  cause  were  of  the  average  duration  of  London  special  jury 
cases,  might  imply  a  sitting  protracted  till  nine  or  ten  at  night,  or  even 
later. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

JUDICIAL  CIRCUITS  —  HOUSE  OF  LORDS. 
A.  D.  1834  TO  1837.     JET.  55  TO  58. 

IN  the  years  1834  and   1835  two  changes  took  place 
among  the  Judges  of  the  Court   of   King's  Bench 
which  rendered    Lord  Denman's  position  as  Chief 
of  that  Court  still  more  agreeable. 

The  first  was  the  transfer  from  the  Exchequer  to  the 
King's  Bench,  in  Easter  Term/  1834,  of  his  old  friend 
Williams,  in  the  place  of  Sir  James  Parke,  who  went  to 
the  Exchequer.1  Williams  was  an  admirable  scholar,  a 
Fellow  of  Trinity,  renowned  for  his  Greek  epigrams,  for 
his  translations  of  Demosthenes,  and  for  some  first-rate 
articles  on  the  Greek  orators  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review." 
He  had  fought  side  by  side  with  Brougham  and  Denman 
on  the  Queen's  trial,  and  had  described  in  classic  Greek 
how  from  behind  the  broad  shield  of  his  leaders  he  had 
harried  with  the  fiery  arrows  of  cross-examination  the 
profligate  and  mendacious  Italian  witnesses,  especially 
the  female  ones  (rdz  jtvraS  'iTaXiKcct)?  He  had  also  gone 
hand  in  hand  with  Denman  in  those  vigorous  and  per- 
severing attacks  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  old  Eldon's 

1  Sir  John  Williams,  born  1777;  fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
1798  ;  called  to  the  Bar,  1804;  M.  P.  for  Lincoln,  1822  ;  King's  Covnsel, 
1827;  Baron  of  Exchequer,  February,  1834,  on  retirement  of  Mr.  Paron 
Bay  ley  ;  removed  to  King's  Bench,  Easter  Term,  1834,  and  continued  a 
Judge  of  that  Court  till  his  death,  September  14,  1846,  aet.  69. 
"  Lives  of  the  Judges,"  vol.  ix.  p.  313. 

^  The  epigram  : 

l  (Brougham)  dpifpiM,  effdX'  e' 


Nvv  jj&v  dpiffrevoov  sv  TipoSo^oiffi 
Moi  d}  'Aiavreirjv  TtpofiaW  ctGitida  TtctfMpacvocaffav 
Kqtya)  EvepSev  f'Aco  raS  xvvds 


14  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1834. 

procrastinations  as  Chancellor,  which   were   among  the 
first  efficient  causes  of  Chancery  reform. 

Sir  John  Williams,  though  so  ripe  a  Grecian,  was  by 
no  means  a  bad  lawyer,  and  ultimately  became  a  com- 
petent judge.  His  manner  and  appearance  were  indeed 
eccentric.  On  the  Bench  he  had  a  little  the  look  of 
Punch  in  ermine.  He  had  also  a  considerable  spice  of 
Welsh  irritability,  and  a  very  strong  and  decided  way  of 
expressing  his  opinions;  but  with  all  this,  from  the  gen- 
uine cordiality  and  kindness  of  his  nature,  he  was  a  great 
favorite  both  with  his  brethren  and  the  Bar.1 

Sir  John  Taylor  Coleridge,  promoted  by  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  in  January,  1835,  to  fiU  the  vacancy  in  the  King's 
Bench  occasioned  by  the  sudden  death  of  Mr.  Justice 
Taunton,  was  one  of  the  most  superior  and  highly  cul- 
tivated persons  who  ever  adorned  that  famous  tribunal. 
His  career  at  Eaton  and  Oxford  was  extremely  briliant : 
at  the  Oxford  examination  for  honors  in  Easter  Term, 
1812,  he  enjoyed  the  distinction,  unexampled  in  the  an- 
nals of  the  University,  of  being  placed  alone  in  the  first 
class  in  Classics;  and,  in  1813,  he  carried  off  in  one  and 
the  same  year  the  Chancellor's  prizes  for  both  the  Eng- 
lish and  Latin  Essays,  an  academical  feat  which  has  only 
thrice  been  accomplished  since  the  first  establishment  of 
these  prizes  in  1768 — the  two  other  instances  being  those 
of  Keble  in  1812,  and  of  Milman  in  1816. 

His  academical  successes  did  not  prevent  his  working 
hard  at  law  in  London.  He  became  an  accomplished 
jurist,  and  a  successful  practitioner ;  but  he  never  aban- 
doned literature,  and  so  well  was  he  known  as  an  able 
periodical  writer,  that  when  Gifford  retired  from  the 
editorship  of  the  "  Quarterly,"  Coleridge  succeeded  him 
in  that  ardous  and  distinguished  post,  and  held  it  for 
a  year  (the  year  1824),  at  the  close  of  which  he  resigned 
it  as  incompatible  with  the  claims  of  his  rapidly  increas- 
ing practice.  After  his  promotion  to  the  King's  Bench 
in  1835,  he  continued  to  act  as  Judge  of  that  Court  foi 
more  than  twenty-three  years  (till  June  28,  1858).  How 
well  he  demeaned  himself  in  his  high  office  may  be 
learned  from  the  impressive  and  eloquent  farewell  ad- 
dress pronounced  by  the  then  Attorney-General  (now 
1  See  his  life  in  Foss's  "Judges  of  England,"  vol.  ix.  p,  315. 


»»3t-]  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  15 

Chief  Baron)  Sir  Fitzroy  Kelly,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
retirement. 

"  Three-and-twenty  years  have  now  elapsed  since  your 
Lordship  was  raised  by  the  well-deserved  favor  of  the 
Crown  to  a  seat  on  that  Bench.  Throughout  that  event- 
ful period  your  public  life  has  been  distinguished  by  that 
dignified  and  sustained  exercise  of  high  judicial  conduct 
which  has  rendered  so  many  of  your  predecessors  illus- 
trious, and  has  won  for  the  administration  of  law  in  this 
Court  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  people.  But, 
my  Lord,  it  is  more  especially  to  the  members  of  the  Bar 
that  your  long  and  eminent  judicial  career  has  exhibited 
a  bright  example  of  the  display  of  all  those  attributes 
which  best  become  a  judge  in  the  discharge  of  his  many 
duties.  To  a  clear  and  powerful  intellect,  to  legal  and 
constitutional  learning  at  once  acute  arid  profound,  to  a 
patient  and  unwearied  assiduity  and  attention,  your  Lord- 
ship has  ever  added  the  estimable  and  scarcely  less  im- 
portant qualities  of  unvarying  courtesy  of  demeanor, 
evenness  of  temper,  and  kindliness  of  heart." l 

Sir  John  Coleridge,  immediately  on  his  retirement 
from  the  Bench,  was  sworn  in  of  the  Privy  Council,  and, 
as  a  member  of  the  Judicial  Committee,  has  for  many 
years  given  the  public  the  benefit  of  his  high  judicial 
ability,  unimpaired  by  age,  and  mellowed  by  experience. 

For  Coleridge  Denrnan  at  once  felt  the  elective  affin- 
ity which  generally  is  entertained  by  one  superior  mind 
for  another,  however  various  and  unlike  the  order  of 
their  superiority.  They  became  very  intimate,  and  fre- 
quently corresponded.  Several  of  Denman's  letters  to 
his  brother  judge,  which,  by  his  courtesy,  have  been 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  family  for  the  use  of  this 
Memoir,  will  appear  in  the  course  of  the  following 
pages. 

In  the  Summer  Assizes  of  1834  Lord  Denman  pre- 
sided on  the  Western  Circuit : 

"  The  circuit  [he  writes  to  Mrs.  Baillie]  has  been  en- 
tirely satisfactory.  Very  hard  work  came,  indeed,  more 
than  once  in  very  hot  weather,  and  I  was  almost  knocked 
up  at  Exeter:  but  I  rallied,  and  am  now  remarkably 

1  Foss's  "Lives  of  the  Judges,"  vol.  ix.  p.  175.  The  biographical  sketch 
of  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge  is  -very  ably  executed. 


16  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834— 

well.  Tom  [present  Lord  Denman]  told  you  of  the 
happy  hours  we  spent  at  Winterslow  [Rev.  W.  Brodie's]. 
I  could  hardly  escape  for  a  single  night  at  Merivale's,  at 
Barton  Place,  but  I  carried  Merivale  himself  off  on  the 
box  of  the  carriage  along  the  south  coast  of  Devon  to 
Plymouth  and  Liskeard  —  an  excellent  guide,  lovely 
weather — a  delightful  tour.  I  had  several  leisure  days 
after  concluding  the  business  at  Bodmin,  enjoyed  the 
magnificent  land  and  sea  views  at  Clovelly :  but  was 
visited  by  the  only  foul  weather  in  the  fairest  district, 
and  prevented  from  approaching  Linton  and  Linmouth. 
Combe  Flory,  where  I  dined  and  slept  at  Sydney  Smith's, 
is  one  of  the  loveliest  valleys  that  can  be  seen.  Our  host 
was  severely  attacked  with  gout,  and  could  not  dine  with 
his  guests,  but  I  had  a  most  delightful  morning  with  him 
the  next  day,  and  he  was  in  excellent  spirits." 

A  letter  written  to  Lady  Denman  from  Bristol  (the 
last  place  on  the  Western  Circuit),  on  August  19,  1834, 
gives  an  account  of  his  difficulties  on  the  road  between 
Wells  and  Bristol,  and  of  his  reception  in  the  great 
trading  city,  which  he  had  not  visited  since  he  appeared 
there  as  Attorney-General,  in  the  winter  of  1832,  to 
prosecute  the  rioters  under  the  special  commission. 

"  I  have  tried  four  long  causes  to-day,  and  have  still 
eight  to  try,  how  long  or  short  I  can  not  guess.  I  am 
eagerly  watching  for  the  opportunity  to  take  wing,  and 
may,  perhaps,  fly  faster  than  this  letter  to  its  destina- 
tion ;  but  in  case  this  should  be  otherwise  I  give  you  a 
little  notice  of  my  goings  on. 

"  After  finishing  the  business  at  Wells,  I  found  myself 
at  liberty  on  Saturday  morning  to  start  for  Banwell — the 
Bishop's  cottage — where  some  of  those  extraordinary 
caves  full  of  antedeluvian  bone"  have  been  discovered. 
The  Bishop  called  and  took  me  ;  I  ordered  my  own  car- 
riage to  follow  instantly.  The  carriage  came  not,  for 
want  of  horses.  I  had  to  walk  to  the  adjoining  town  ; 
still  neither  carriage  nor  horses.  Then  came  the  Bristol 
javelin  man.1  I  borrowed  his  horse  and  rode  on  five 

1  Javelin  men  are  an  escort  of  men,  carrying  light  (and  harmless)  spears, 
provided  by  the  Sheriff's  to  meet  the  Judges  on  their  entrance  into  the  as- 
size town  ;  they  are  now  a  "  sham,"  but  were  once  a  reality,  having  formed 
the  armed  force  by  which  the  Sheriff  safeguarded  the  Judge  from  his  en- 


i 83  7.]  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  17 

miles  across  country  to  the  nearest  place  on  the  high 
road  where  horses  were  kept.  But  one  mare  was  blind, 
the  other  had  staked  herself,  and  the  postboy  was  ill.  I 
prevailed  with  the  landlord  to  the  extent  of  sending  a 
boy  over  with  the  blind  mare,  to  carry  my  apology  to 
the  Sheriffs,  who  had  to  meet  me  at  Tillenden  Hill  (the 
place  where  Wetherell  was  so  shockingly  maltreated  in 
the  riots  of  1831).  At  length  the  landlord's  heart  re- 
lented on  my  declaring  the  real  meaning  of  the  case, 
and  he  undertook  to  drive  me  himself.  While  the  long 
divided  materials  of  the  chaise  were  putting  together,  my 
carriage  at  length  came  up,  and  finally  brought  me  to 
the  appointed  place,  not  long  after  the  appointed  time. 

"  A  very  curious  sensation  entering  Bristol,  after  I 
had  prosecuted  the  Mayor  and  all  the  Aldermen,1  and 
they  place  the  Judge  by  himself  in  a  chariot  with  six 
horses,  which  proceeds  at  a  funeral  pace  to  the  Court 
House  and  the  Mansion  House. 

"  The  Mayor  is  a  very  gentlemanly  man,  married  to  a 
Nottinghamshire  lady.  I  am  lodged  and  entertained  by 
them  with  great  good  humor  and  hospitality.  Miles 
[the  member]  dined  here,  which  made  everything  pass 
off  pleasantly.  Yesterday  I  went  with  the  Mayor  to  see 
old  Mr.  Miles'  pictures — a  splendid  collection,  and  the 
country,  too,  very  beautiful. 

"  To-day,  after  sitting  in  court  till  half-past  eight,  I 
dined  with  the  Sheriffs — a  great  Tory  party.  My  health 
was  splendidly  received,  and  I  proposed  that  of  Sir 
Charles  Wetherell,  the  Recorder.  The  utmost  good 
humor  has  prevailed. 

"  When  I  began  this  it  was  past  midnight,  and,  as  I 
must  be  in  court  by  9  to-morrow,  I  will  now  wish  your 
Ladyship  good-night. 

"  Your  ever  affectionate  and  faithful  husband." 

The  next  day,  August  20,  he  writes  again : 

"  I  hope  the  sight  of  my  handwriting  instead  of  my- 
self is  as  hateful  to  you  as  the  task  of  writing  instead  of 

trance  into  the  county,  to  the  assize  town,  during  his  stay  there,  and  again 
on  his  departure,  as  far  as  the  borders  of  the  county. 

1  For  criminal  laches  in  not  earlier  suppressing  the  great  Bristol  riots  of 

1831  ;  tried  at  Bar,  betore  Lord  Tenterden  and  other  Judges,  in  November, 

1832  ;  see  vol.  i.  chap.  xxii. 

II.— 2 


i8  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1834— 

coming  is  to  me  ;  yet  it  would  be  even  worse  for  you  to 
receive  neither  husband  nor  letter.  Twelve  hours  of 
yesterday  (from  9  A.  M.  to  9  P.  M.)  were  given  to  two 
causes  full  of  difficulty  and  without  the  least  interest  or 
value.  Six  causes  still  remain,  and  I  have  the  comfort- 
able assurance  that  they  are  likely  to  be  equally  long, 
equally  insignificant,  and  equally  tiresome.  I  can  only 
promise  to  work  at  them  like  a  dragon,  and  lose  no 
chance  of  knocking  them  on  the  head." 

At  the  Summer  Assizes  of  the  next  year,  Denman 
went  the  Oxford  Circuit  with  his  friend  Williams.  Writing 
from  Oxford,  to  Lady  Denman,  on  July  21,  1835,  he 
says: 

"  I  have  had  a  light  calendar,  which  I  fully  dispatched 
before  one  to-day.  Williams  will  not  be  liberated  till 
to-morrow,  by  reason  of  the  everlasting  speeches  in  civil 
cases  on  this  circuit.  A  curious  scene  took  place  in 
court  yesterday.  The  Marquis  of  Blandford  acted  as 
foreman  of  the  grand  jury,  and  brought  in  all  the  bills 
found  for  felony.  Then  came  another  foreman  with  a 
bill  for  an  assault  (misdemeanor),  in  which  the  defendant 
was  the  former  foreman — the  aforesaid  Marquis.  It- 
seems  he  was  served  with  a  writ  for  a  debt,  and  thought 
proper  to  tear  the  writ,  and  grievously  beat  the  bailiff. 
He  has  been  wise  enough  to  make  up  the  matter  this 
morning,  and  saved  me  the  trouble  of  fining  him,  by 
paying  a  sum  of  money  to  the  prosecutor. 

"  The  dons  dined  here  (Judge's  lodgings)  yesterday- 
nine  in  number.     The  University  is  very  empty,  but  Dr 
Buckland  has  been  offering  the  exhibition  of  his  museum, 
and  Dick  Croft    feeds  the  judicial  suite  to-day.     We  had 
a  delightful  walk,  and  dinner  at  the  Archbishop's  [Har- 
court,  of  York]  beautiful  park  of  Nuneham,  on  Sunday : 
they  are  a  very  good-humored  family.    Tom  [the  present 
Lord  Denman]   is  quite  well,  and  rides  every  morning 
with  my  brother  Williams." 

From  Worcester  he  writes,  some  days  later: 
"At  Oxford  I  saw  many  of  the  major  lions,  among  the 
rest,  Magdalen,  which  has  the  finest  walks  and  gardens ; 
and  we  dined  in  state  with  Richard  Croft,  in    Exeter 

1  Sister's  son  to  Lord  Denman.      The  dinner  referred  to  was  given  in  the 
hall  of  his  College— Exeter. 


i837-J  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  19 

Hall.  No  bachelors'  dinner  could  be  better  appointed, 
or  more  agreeable.  Next  day  I  breakfasted  again  with 
Dr.  Buckland,  who  introduced  me  to  his  famous  geolog- 
ical museum,  and  gave  me,  in  a  condensed  form,  the  sub- 
ject of  his  whole  course  of  lectures.  I  found  much  more 
entertainment  than  I  expected,  and  was  highly  delighted 
with  the  lecture.  Tom  brought  Bessy  '  from  Bisham, 
and  she  saw  several  of  the  most  striking  things  in  Ox- 
ford. We  then  went  on  to  Blenheim,  and  went  through 
that  magnificent  mansion.  The  Duke  politely  tendered 
us  leave  to  walk  through  his  gardens  and  pleasure 
grounds,  which  are  about  a  mile  in  length,  beautifully 
laid  out,  and  full  of  rare  plants.  We  then  proceeded  to 
a  most  comfortable  lone  inn — '  Chapel  House  ' — where 
we  had  a  family,  but  rather  late,  dinner,  under  Bessy's 
presidency,  at  10.  Next  day  Tom  and  I  rode  about 
seventeen  miles,  to  Colonel  Davies'  beautiful  place — • 
Elmley  Park.  We  slept  in  that  sweet  air,  then  came 
into  Worcester,  and  attended  cathedral  service.  After- 
wards, I  sate  for  five  hours  in  a  pretty  hot  court,  and,  by 
way  of  a  pleasing  change,  dined  [at  the  Sheriff's]  in  wig 
and  gown,  in  presence  of  about  thirty  magistrates, 
almost  all  strangers.  The  rest  of  my  work  I  finished 
to-day  by  4  o'clock.  Williams  is  still  enjoying  the  luxury 
of  nisi  prius,  and  leaves  me  to  play  the  host  to  about 
fifty  barristers,  but  without  canonicals.  We  dine  with 
the  Bishop  to-morrow ;  the  next  day  I  may  take  a  little 
of  my  learned  brother's  work  off  his  hands,  but  I  am 
anxious  to  get  off  in  good  time  to  Lord  Lyttelton,  who 
has  sent  us  the  kindest  invitation  to  Hagley — a  visit  to 
which  I  look  forward  with  peculiar  pleasure. 

From  Gloucester,  still  on  the  same  circuit,  he  writes, 
on  August  16,  1835  : 

"  This  week  has  been  cut  up  between  hard  work  and 
long  and  delightful  journeys.  The  former  was  over  at 
Hereford  about  noon  on  Wednesday,  and  Tom,  Archer," 
and  I  proceeded  without  delay,  along  the  bank  of  the 
Wye,  to  the  beautiful  town  of  Ross,  visited  the  house 

1  The  Hon.  Mrs.  Hodgson,  who  went  round  the  rest  of  this  circuit  with 
him. 

J  Sir  Archer  Croft,  Bart.,  eldest  son  of  Denman's  sister  Margaret,  one  of 
the  Mn^-M-s  in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench. 


2o  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834— 

and  gardens  of  the  benevolent  John  Kyrle,  so  celebrated 
for  his  good  deeds  as  the  '  Man  of  Ross,'  and  rode  the 
next  morning  to  Goodrich  Castle,  a  fine  ruin  on  the 
banks  of  the  same  river.  We  got  to  Monmouth  in  good 
time  for  church  and  court,  and  the  remainder  of  that 
day  and  the  whole  of  Friday  till  nightfall  I  gave  to  the 
criminal  business.  Yesterday  (Saturday)  morning  we 
again  mounted  our  horses  and  rode  to  breakfast  at  the 
village  of  Abbey  Tinterne,  graced  by  the  splendid  ruins 
of  Tinterne  Abbey.  At  a  small  but  very  comfortable 
inn  there  my  brother  Williams  and  his  Marshal  joined 
us.  We  then  proceeded  to  those  walks  of  the  highest 
beauty  on  the  top  of  the  lofty  hill  called  Wyndcliff, 
which  look  down  on  the  curving  rocks  and  woods  above 
the  Wye.  These  are  of  the  most  picturesque  character, 
on  the  grandest  scale,  and  of  the  finest  forms — the  eye 
follows  the  basin  they  compose  all  along  the  banks  of 
the  river  right  away  to  the  Bristol  Channel.  One  object 
is  disappointing  to  the  eye,  but  that  is  no  less  than  the 
river  itself,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  scene.  We  had 
the  ill  luck  to  see  it  only  at  low  water,  shrunk  to  a  thread, 
and  yellow  with  thick  mud.  We  dined  at  Chepstow, 
famous  for  its  noble  castle.  I  came  here  (Gloucester)  to 
open  the  commission  about  9  at  night,  in  a  large  and 
busy  town  on  a  market  day  and  a  Saturday.  Such  a 
contrast  to  our  peaceful  wanderings  !  and  such  a  drunken 
attendance  while  the  foolish  forms  were  going  through ! 
As  soon  as  a  few  moments'  silence  was  obtained,  a  gruff 
voice  halloaed  out,  '  Silence  in  the  gallery,  I  can't  hear 
the  gentleman  for  the  noise  !'  but  all  were  civil  enough, 
and  one  man  kept  pretty  close,  crying  '  God  bless  Lord 
Denman  ! ' ' 

These  letters  have  been  transcribed,  and  others  similar 
to  them  will  be  so,  not,  certainly,  for  their  literary  merit, 
for  they  possess  little  or  none,  but  principally  for  their 
simple  and  unadorned  presentment  of  an  English  Judge's 
life  on  circuit,  in  those  days  before  railways,  with  its 
curious  alternations  of  hard  work  in  court,  hard  dining 
at  formal  banquets,  agreeable  visits  at  great  houses,  and, 
perhaps  pleasanter  than  all  the  rest,  quiet  sojourns  at 
wayside  inns  in  the  neighborhood  of  famous  sights  or 
beautiful  scenery. 


l837-J  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  21 

This  Oxford  Summer  Circuit  of  1835  was  an  exception- 
ally idle  one;  and  Denman,  in  writing  to  his  wife  during 
one  of  his  many  intervals  of  enforced  leisure,  says  : 

"  I  must  acknowledge  that  these  intermediate  holidays 
are  not  quite  so  welcome  as  they  ought  to  be,  because 
they  suggest  the  reflection,  '  What  a  pity  to  be  detained 
here  doing  nothing,  when  I  might  have  been  enjoying 
myself  at  home.'  However,  they  give  some  pleasure, 
and  are  really  sometimes  desirable  as  an  interruption  to 
severer  labors."1 

Of  the  mode  in  which  he  occasionally  amused  these 
leisure  intervals  a  sample  is  afforded  by  the  follow- 
ing jeu  desprit  in  Maccaronic  Latin,  which  Denman, 
a  ripe  scholar,  who  always  kept  up  his  scholarship, 
wrote  while  on  the  present  Oxford  Circuit  in  reference 
to  a  somewhat  whimsical  adventure  which,  on  the  Oxford 
Circuit  of  the  previous  year,  had  befallen  his  learned 
brother  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  Sir 
Nicolas  Conyngham  Tindal,  one  of  the  most  benevolent 
and  good-natured  men  that  ever  breathed,  with  a  vein  of 
grave,  sly  humor  which  made  him  vastly  relish  telling  the 
story  himself. 

It  is  here  given  as  communicated  by  Lord  Denman's 
fourth  son,  the  present  Mr.  Justice  Denman,  himself 
well  known  in  the  world  of  scholarship  for  his  choice 
translations  of  the  first  book  of  the  "  Iliad"  into  Latin 
Elegiacs,  and  of  Gray's  "  Elegy  "  into  Greek  Hexameters. 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  on  his 
way  from  Shrewsbury  to  Hereford  (on  the  Oxford  Cir- 
cuit) ran  over  and  killed  a  pig.  An  ancient  crone  to 
whom  the  pig  belonged  came  out  and  abused  him 
vehemently.  Sir  N.  C.  Tindal,  who  was  the  very  per- 
sonification of  good  humor,  asked  the  enraged  matron 
what  the  pig  was  worth.  On  her  naming  £2  he  at  once 
handed  her  the  amount  (not  depriving  her  of  the  pork 
and  bacon)  and  said,  "  There,  my  good  lady,  is  40^.  for 
you,  and  that,  you  know,  carries  costs." 

Denman's  version  runs  thus,  slightly  varying  the  facts: 

1  Since  the  general  introduction  of  railways,  the  Judges,  especially  on  the 
less  remote  circuits,  can  frequently  contrive  to  steal  home  for  a  day  or  two 
between  the  close  of  the  work  at  one  assize  town  and  its  commencement  at 
another. 


22  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1834— 

I. 

•    Judex  Capitalis, 

Habens  odio  porcum, 
Vi  et  armis  malis 
Tradidit  in  Orcum. 

II. 
Porcum  amans  anus, 

Tanquam  Vitrea  Circe, 
Huic  injecit  manus, 

Ut  penderet  furcse. 

III. 
"  Facinus  cefandum  !  " — 

Ut  piaret  necem 
Solvit  Deo-dandum 

Solidis  quater-decem. 

IV. 
Ne  vocato  stolidos, 

Qui  habitant  villagia ; 
"Quadraginta  solidos  ! 

Ubi  sunt  castagia?" 

V. 

Addidit  Communium, 

Placitorum  Pater 
Solidos  (quam  pecuniam !) 

Quadraginta  quater. 

MORAL. 
Interest  clientibus, 

Ut  sit  finis  litium, — 
Bene  jus  scientibus, 

Melius  est  initium. 

In  the  Session  of  1835,  Denman,  as  Chief  Justice  of 
England,  acted  for  some  months,  ex-offic.io,  as  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Lords  while  the  Great  Seal  was  in  commis- 
sion. On  Brougham's  presenting  his  celebrated  Fourteen 
Resolutions  of  the  2ist  May,  for  the  establishment  of  an 
Education  Board,  the  Chief  Justice  addressed  the  House 
in  a  few  impressive  sentences,  which,  coming  from  such 
a  quarter,  carried  great  weight  with  them,  on  the  con- 
nection between  ignorance  and  crime,  and  on  the  duty 
of  Government  as  a  mere  measure  of  precaution,  and 
with  a  view  to  the  preservation  of  Society,  to  bestir 
themselves  for  the  education  of  the  masses.  In  the 
course  of  his  observations  he  touched  upon  a  point  of 
still  deeper  and  graver  significance.  "  He  had,"  he  con- 
fessed "after  reflecting  on  the  question,  not  as  a  subject 


i837-]  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  23 

for  rhetorical  declamation,  but  as  one  demanding  grave 
attention,  doubted  how  far  the  State  was  justified  in  in- 
flicting punishment  for  offenses  against  which  it  had  taken 
no  means  to  guard."1 

On  June  19,  1835,  Denman  expressed  his  entire  ap- 
proval of  the  principle  of  the  Execution  of  Wills  Act, 
declaring  the  opinion,  the  correctness  of  which  time  has 
shown,  that  the  attestation  of  two  persons  was  quite  a 
sufficient  guarantee  in  cases  of  wills. 

On  August  27,  1835,  in  the  course  of  one  of  the  long 
and  angry  debates  that  took  place  on  the  Municipal 
Corporations  Reform  Bill,  there  arose  one  of  those  per- 
sonal discussions  which  generally,  and  naturally,  succeed 
better  in  fixing  the  attention  of  deliberative  assemblies 
than  solemn  arguments  on  matters  of  much  higher 
import. 

Lord  Lyndhurst,  in  the  course  of  a  vehement  attack 
on  the  ministerial  measure,  had  made  some  very  dis- 
paraging remarks  on  the  alleged  extreme  political  opin- 
ions of  almost  all  the  gentlemen  selected  by  Government 
to  act  as  Municipal  Commissioners.  This  called  up 
Denman,  who  said  that, 

"  These  observations  had  given  him  the  greatest  pain  ; 
they  were  entirely  unfounded.  These  gentlemen  had 
been  described  as  entertaining  extreme  opinions  on  polit- 
ical subjects.  Such  an  imputation  was  more  applicable 
to  the  noble  and  learned  person  by  whom  it  was  made. 
For  that  noble  and  learned  Lord  he  had  a  great  respect ; 
he  was  indebted  to  him  personally  for  a  long  series  of 
kindnesses.  If  it  was  a  calumny  to  declare  that  that  noble 
and  learned  Lord  had  changed  his  opinions  on  such  sub- 
jects, he  could  only  declare  that  he  uttered  it  with  per- 
fect good  faith,  and  he  believed  also  it  was  the  perfect 
conviction  of  all  who  knew  that  noble  and  learned  Lord."* 

Lord  Lyndhurst  said  he  had  certainly  stated  it  as  a 
matter  of  charge  against  His  Majesty's  Government  that 
they  had  selected  as  Commissioners  gentlemen  of  one 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xxvii.,  p.  1335,  sqq.  It  is  curious 
to  see  the  chief  of  the  English  criminal  law  giving,  in  1835,  a  certain  sanc- 
tion to  the  argument  which  the  French  man  of  genius  long  afterwards 
worked  out  in  "  Les  Mberables." 

*  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xxx.  p.  1042. 


24  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1834— 

class  of  political  opinions,  and  of  one  class  only.  As 
to  the  reference  to  his  own  political  life  Lord  Lyndhurst 
said : 

"  I  have  been  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  my  noble  and 
learned  friend  (Denman)  for  a  long  period ;  I  went  the 
same  circuit  with  him  ;  I  have  been  engaged  in  long  and 
varied  conversations  with  him  at  different  times ;  and,  if 
he  speaks  of  a  period  of  twenty  years  past,  I  can  only  say 
that  I  am  unable  to  recall  to  my  recollection  the  particular 
opinions  which  I  might  then  have  entertained  or  expressed 
with  regard  to  political  measures^):  but  I  can  assert  that 
I  never  belonged  to  any  party  or  political  society  what- 
ever ;  I  never  embarked  in  politics,  and  I  never  wrote  a 
political  article  on  either  side  of  any  question  which 
might  have  been  agitated.  This  was  my  conduct  till  I 
came  in  the  House  of  Parliament,  now  nearly  twenty 
years  ago.  From  that  period  my  life  has  been  before 
the  public ;  my  course  has  been  direct  and  straightfor- 
ward ;  I  have  always  belonged  to  the  same  party,  and  I 
have  always  entertained  the  same  opinions  from  that 
time  to  the  present."  ' 

Denman's  reply  was  short  and  incisive,  with  a  certain 
tone  of  high-bred  irony  about  it,  which  must  have  made 
it  additionally  unpleasant  to  MephistopJicles. 

"  If  my  noble  and  learned  friend  has  understood 
me  as  alluding  to  certain  opinions  which  he  was  sup- 
posed to  entertain,  with  a  view  of  conveying  an  imputa- 
tion against  him,  I  can  only  say  it  is  an  imputation 
which  has  often  been  repeated,  which  I  stated,  believing 
it  to  be  true,  and  which  I  should  now  believe  to  be  true, 
were  it  not  for  the  assertion  of  the  noble  and  learned 
Lord. 

"And,  I  must  say,  I  feel  somewhat  astonished,  that, 
when  the  question  is,  what  were  the  political  sentiments 
of  my  noble  and  learned  friend,  he  should  plead  forget- 
fulness  with  reference  to  the  opinions  he  entertained 
twenty  years  ago,  undoubtedly,  but  still  when  he  had 
attained,  nay,  passed,  the  mature  age  of  forty.3 

"  Up  to  the  period  when  he  came  into  Parliament,  the 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xxx.  p.  1050. 

2  Lord  Lyndhurst  was  born  in  1/72  ;  he  would,  therefore,  have  been  foity- 
three  in  1815,  and  sixty-three  in  1835. 


1 83  7-]  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  25 

universal  impression  of  those  who  lived  on  terms  of  close 
intimacy  with  my  noble  and  learned  friend,  undoubtedly 
was  this:  that  his  opinions  were — not  with  reference  to 
any  one  particular  measure,  or  any  one  occasion,  but 
generally  and  unequivocally — what  would  be  now  called 
Liberal.  Those  opinions  were  not  uttered  merely  in  the 
presence  of  those  who  were  intimate  with  him,  or  in  the 
course  of  private  conversation;  but  they  were  avowed  as 
if  my  learned  and  noble  friend  felt  a  pride  in  entertain- 
ing and  avowing  them. 

"  I  beg  to  be  understood  as  standing  corrected  in  the 
opinion  I  had  expressed  as  to  the  former  political  senti- 
ments of  my  noble  and  learned  friend,  and  I  shall  only, 
therefore,  remind  him  that  stronger  proof  of  his  having 
been  a  Whig,  and  something  more  than  a  Whig,  could 
be  adduced  with  respect  to  himself,  than  as  to  these 
Commissioners  against  whom  my  noble  and  learned 
friend  has  really  been  '  scattering  his  arrows  in  the 
dark.' " 

The  prolonged  and  embittered  discussion  on  the  Mu- 
nicipal Reform  Bill,  not  finally  closed  till  after  more  than 
one  conference  between  the  Lords  and  Commons,  kept 
Parliament  sitting  till  September  10. 

Denman,  who,  from  his  position  as  ex-officio  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  was,  of  course,  unable  to  leave 
London  till  the  adjournment,  lost  no  time,  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  session,  in  establishing  himself  at  Stony 
Middleton,  whence,  on  September  19,  he  wrote,  as  fol- 
lows, to  his  sister,  Mrs.  BailKe,  who  had,  it  seems,  been 
communicating  to  him  her  alarm  at  some  reports  of  his 
riding  too  spirited  a  horse : 

"  Thank  you  for  your  good  advice,  but  my  horse  and 
his  rider  have  been  greatly  misrepresented  ;  nothing  can 
be  more  prudent,  careful,  or  slow.  Fanny  rides  with  me, 
and  we  all  flatter  ourselves  that  her  health  and  looks  are 
much  improved.  I  think  she  is  never  long  without 
writing  to  Sophie.  We  are  a  very  reduced  family — the 
two  old  folks,  Fanny,  and  Margaret,  though  the  latter 
can  hardly  be  said  to  be  of  our  party,  as  most  of  her  time 
is  spent  at  Stoke  [the  Arkwrights].  For  the  last  week 
Miss  Adelaide  Kemble,  the  divine  singer,  has  been  there, 
with  her  mother  [Mrs.  Charles  Kemble],  the  idol  of  my 


26  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.         [1834— 

play-going  youth.  The  Duke  is  also  at  Chatsworth. 
There  is,  therefore,  plenty  of  society  within  reach.  But 
you  can  hardly  imagine  how  quiet  a  life  we  lead.  The 
weather  is  magnificent :  if  the  showers  are  rather  more 
than  necessary  to  preserve  the  various  verdure,  they  are 
just  right  for. our  transplantations.  The  face  of  things 
is  a  good  deal  changed  ;  the  number  of  trees  being  now 
rather  excessive.  I  fancy  we  are  making  a  very  pretty, 
and,  for  its  size,  rather  a  handsome  place ;  but  I  shall  not 
feel  thoroughly  attached  to  it  till  both  my  sister  [Lady 
Croft]  and  you  have  become  acquainted  with  it,  and  sug- 
gested your  improvements." 

On  January  6,  1836,  while  at  Stony  Middleton  for  his 
Christmas  vacation,  he  writes  to  Mrs.  Baillie  respecting 
the  dramas  of  her  gifted  sister-in-law,  Joanna,  which  had 
then  recently  been  published  in  a  collected  form  : 

"  I  may  challenge  you  to  have  bewept  the  '  Bride  '  more 
than  I  did  ;  reading  it  in  the  carriage  with  no  one  but 
Richard,  even  his  presence  was  at  the  time  an  annoyance 
to  me.  That  play  and  '  Henriquez '  stand  out  to  me  far 
prominent  before  all  the  rest,  many  of  which,  however, 
possess  a  high  order  of  excellence ;  the  '  Homicide/  for 
example,  in  which  I  greatly  prefer  the  substituted  scene  to 
that  originally  written,  thinking  the  effect  of  heroic  reso- 
lution on  a  young  and  generous  mind  far  more  dramatic 
than  any  scenic  exhibition.  Empson  [editor  of  The 
EdinbnrgJi\  tells  me  he  has  been  performing  some  of  the 
plays  in  his  brother's  family  circle  with  great  applause. 
Merivale  mentions  those  which  he  has  read  as  delightful, 
and  they  do  not  include  either  of  my  two  prime  favor- 
ites. The  early  notices  in  reviews,  &c.,  are  likely  to  be 
useful  in  attracting  readers ;  and  it  seems  probable  that  a 
new  edition  will  soon  be  called  for,  in  which  event  I 
should  be  glad  to  tender  my  services. 

"  Tempted  by  Coleridge's  '  Table  Talk,'  which  ranks 
the  story  of  Ben  Jonson's  'Alchemist'  with  the  two 
which  I  ever  thought  the  most  interesting,  'Tom  Jones' 
and  the  '  yEdipus '  of  Sophocles,  I  have  been  studying 
that  play  and  others  of  Ben's  in  your  two  volumes.  It 
turns  out  that  the  '  Alchemist '  has  no  story  at  all,1  only 
a  magic  lantern  of  knaveries  conducted  by  rogues  and 

1  A  most  strange  extra-judicial  dictum  !     The  plot  of  the  '  Alchemist '  is  a 


1 83  7.]  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  -27 

trulls.  The  language,  indeed,  is  vigorous  and  rich,  and 
some  of  the  pictures  of  the  time  amusing ;  but  how 
different  from  those  which  please  from  their  truth  to 
general  nature,  and  appeal  directly  to  the  human  heart ! 
I  am  happy  to  say  my  sons  all  enjoy  Joanna's  volumes. 
The  young  ladies  are  preparing  for  a  splendid  entertain- 
ment for  this  evening — Twelfth  Night — and  are  all  but 
absorbed  in  it." 

Denman,  who  had  returned  to  town  for  the  first  day 
of  Hilary  Term  (January  19),  writes  thence  to  Lady 
Denman,  who  had  remained  for  a  time  in  the  country, 
communicating  some  of  the  legal  gossip  of  the  day  re- 
specting the  then  recent  elevation  of  Lord  Cottenham  to 
the  Woolsack,  and  of  Lady  Campbell  to  the  Peerage  as 
Lady  Stratheden. 

"  You  will  see  the  end  of  our  law  changes  in  to-day's 
paper.  I  do  not  admire  any  of  the  new  titles.  There  is 
much  talk  of  the  Attorney-General's  [Campbell]  being 
passed  over,  his  indecent  boast  that  he  had  resigned,  and 
the  oddity  of  his  subsequent  reconciliation.  Littledale 
just  now  at  a  meeting  of  the  judges  complimented  Lord 
Abinger  on  his  daughter's  elevation.1  He  said,  rather 
abruptly,  '  It  was  not  matter  of  congratulation  to  him.' 
I  have  seen  the  new  Chancellor  [Lord  Cottenham]  *  a 
good  deal  touching  the  new  arrangements,  and  shall  call 
on  the  other  parties  to-morrow." 

The  next  day,  January  20,  he  writes  again : 

"  I  give  myself  a  little  holiday  from  law  papers,  that  I 
may  have  the  pleasure  of  again  writing  to  you.  I  told 
you  this  morning  [in  a  letter  not  preserved]  how  gay  we 
had  been,  but  not  that  I  called  on  Jekyll  on  Sunday, 
who  is  either  eighty-two  or  eighty-three,  extremely  deaf, 
and  entirely  helpless,  carried  by  servants  to  and  from  his 
carriage,  but  as  lively  as  a  bird,  in  raptures  at  my  calling, 
with  a  voice  deeper  than  mine,  and  peals  of  laughter 

marvel  of  constructive  ingenuity,  or.ly  equaled  in  the  English  drama  by 
those  of  Ben's  two  other  masterpieces,  the  'Fox*  and  the  'Silent  Woman.' 

1  Lady  Campbell,  raised  to  the  Peerage  in  1836  as  Baroness  Stratheden, 
was  daughter  of  Lord  Abinger  (Sir  James  Scarlett.) 

a  Sir  Charles  Christopher  Pepys,  who,  since  April,  1835,  had  been  Chief 
Commissioner  of  the  Great  Seal,  was  appointed  Lord  Chancellor  on  Janu- 
ary 16,  1836,  and  created  Lord  Cottenham  on  the  2Oth  of  the  same  month. 


28  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834— 

louder  than  Lewis's.1  He  kept  me  more  than  an  hour, 
saying  odd  things.  The  Attorney-General's  reconciliation 
with  Government  he  called  the  Camel  (Campbell)  going 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle.  He  desired,  most  particu- 
lar, remembrance  to  you,  and  said  you  two  understood 
one  another;  he  is  not  likely  ever  to  dine  out  again,  but 
hopes  you  will  call  on  him. 

"Afterwards,  I  met  both  Mr.  Attorney-General  and 
Lady  Stratheden  (for  that  is  to  be  her  title)  at  Lord 
Holland's,  as  well  as  the  Speaker  [Abercrombie,  after- 
wards Lord  Dunfermline]  and  his  lady,  and  others,  a 
very  pleasant  party,  and  many  inquiries  after  you.  Yes- 
terday we  met  Rogers  at  Cavendish  Square  [Mrs.  Bail- 
lie's],  and  had  a  very  amusing  day,  though  not  anything 
worth  reporting. 

"  Have  you  seen  that  '  Henrique^  '  [play  of  Joanna 
Baillie's]  is  advertised  for  Covent  Garden,  and  a  popular 
new  actress  to  take  the  principal  part  ?  I  don't  think 
Joanna  has  been  consulted,  or  is  at  all  in  communica- 
tion with  the  theater  at  present.  Your  continuing  to 
enjoy  the  country  is  delightful  to  me.  Pray  have  your 
eye  on  the  form  of  the  sloping  ground  beyond  that 
which  is  to  be  leveled — much  care  and  taste  will  be  re- 
quired— easy,  graceful,  and  natural  slopes  must  be  aimed 
at. 

"  I  have  generally  walked  down  to  Westminster  [from 
Portland  Place],  not  liking  the  carriage,  unless  it  rains, 
and  being  deprived  of  Gamester  (alas !)  by  his  lameness  ; 
but  I  am  flattered  with  hopes  of  its  being  only  a  corn  or 
defect  of  shoeing :  this  morning  I  rode  the  chestnut,  but 
we  shall  never  like  one  another.  Tell  your  father  [Rev. 
R.  Vevers]  you  will  see  him  in  three  weeks ;  much 
sooner,  I  hope.  Your  ball  is  this  day  fortnight !  " 

His  attached  sister,  Mrs.  Baillie,  was  always  in  the 
habit  of  making  her  brother  a  present  on  his  birthday 
(February  21).  The  following  graceful  lines,  on  receiving 
this  annual  gift,  hastily  scribbled  off  while  he  was  sil- 
ting in  Guildhall,  will  serve  to  show  the  unaltered  warmth 
and  steadfastness  of  the  affection  which  united  the 
brother  and  sister : 

"  Another  graceful  memorial  of  good  taste  and  affec- 

1  Lord  Denman's  youngest  son,  then  about  fifteen. 


1 83  7-]  JUDICIAL    CIRCUITS.  29 

tion  assumes  its  destined  station,  shedding  lustre  on 
my  official  labors.  The  gift  resembles  the  giver,  whose 
early  kindness  cultivated  every  quality  that  could  have 
a  chance  of  being  ripened  into  fitness  for  such  a  station, 
and  whose  constant  friendship  is  one  of  my  best  en- 
couragements." 

Parliament  met  on  February  4;  but  Denman's  name 
does  not  appear  as  a  speaker,  except  on  two  occasions 
in  the  course  of  the  Session — on  June  10,  1836,  when  he 
intimated  a  very  strong  opinion  in  favor  of  abolishing 
the  Palatinate  Courts  of  Durham  ; 1  and  again  on  June 
23,  1836,  when  he  assisted  at  the  last  discussion  that 
took  place  in  Parliament  on  the  Prisoners'  Counsel  Bill, 
the  second  reading  of  which  was,  on  this  occasion,  moved 
by  Lord  Lyndhurst. 

In  the  course  of  his  observations  on  this  long-pending 
question,  Denman,  after  paying  some  deserved  compli- 
ments to  Lyndhurst,  on  the  ability  with  which  he  had 
stated  the  case,  declared,  emphatically,  "  that  it  was  es- 
sential to  carry  the  principles  of  the  Bill  into  practical 
execution  for  the  honor  of  the  laws,  for  the  due  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  for  the  realization  of  truth,  and  for  the 
protection  of  innocence." 

He  added,  that  the  only  difficulty  he  had  ever  felt  on 
the  subject  was  this,  that  he  could  never  meet  with  any 
serious  argument  against  the  principle  of  allowing  coun- 
sel to  prisoners.11 

In  the  summer  of  1836,  Lord  Denman  chose  the 
South  Wales  Circuit,  of  which  the  two  following  letters 
to  his  wife  furnish  some  pleasant  reminiscences: 

"  Haverford  West :  July  29,  1836. 

"  Dearest  Love, — I  must  send  you  a  little  letter  to 
tell  you  that  we  are  all  well,  and  have  enjoyed  a  most 
delightful  holiday  at  Mirehouse's,3  going  round  the  most 
wild  and  romantic  coast  of  craggy  cliffs  that  can  be  im- 
agined. We  (that  is  Tom4  and  I)  were  both  made  un- 

1  Hansard,  Par.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  299. 

*  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xxxiv.  pp.  760-778.  The  Prison- 
ers' Counsel  Bill  received  the  Royal  Assent  on  August  20, 1836,  and  became 
law  as  the  6  &  7  Will.  IV.  c.  114. 

3  The  Hall,  Angle,  Pembrokeshire. 

4  The  present  Lord  Denman,  whc  accompanied  his  father  as  associate. 


30  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834— 

comfortable  by  GeorgianaV  adventurous  style  of  court- 
ing danger  on  the  edges  of  tremendous  precipices,  and  it 
might  not  be  amiss  if  you  gave  her  a  hint  on  the  subject. 
Our  host  and  hostess  were  perfectly  kind,  and  their 
children  are  extremely  amiable.  We  finished  [at  Milford 
Haven]  with  seeing  old  George  III.'s  favorite  yacht,  the 
'  Royal  Sovereign  : '  they  are  building  an  enormous 
steamer  and  an  eighty-gun  ship.  This  scrap  is  written 
because  I  don't  know  when  I  may  be  able  to  write  again, 
with  a  heavy  crop  of  causes  to  be  mown.  I  wish  I  could 
give  you  a  notion  of  '  Elligoy  Stack.'  It  stands  a  great 
rock  perpendicularly  out  of  the  sea,  stuck  all  over,  as  a 
garden  wall  with  flints  or  bottles,  with  millions  of  the 
Elligoy — a  kind  of  sea  duck,  with  about  equal  parts  of 
black  and  white,  in  stripes.  Millions  are  also  floating  on 
the  waves ;  when  disturbed  they  fly  around,  with  such  a 
shrill,  rattling  scream.  The  rock  is  much  in  layers,  where 
they  stand  (for  want  of  sitting  room),  and  are  said  to 
hatch  their  eggs  with  their  feet.  The  sight  is  never  to  be 
forgotten." 

From  Brecon,  a  little  later,  August  7,  he  writes : 
il  As  the  post  goes  out  early  to-morrow  morning,  I 
shall  just  send  you  a  few  lines.  We  arrived  here  soon 
after  seven,  having  performed  a  most  delightful  journey 
through  a  most  rich  and  cultivated,  yet  bold  and  pic- 
turesque, country.  We  are  quite  well — have  charming 
apartments  and  fine  prospects  here,  with  plenty  of  old 
churches  and  ruined  castles.  The  sheriff  is  the  same 
gentleman  who  entertained  Shadwell  and  me  in  1797;* 
we  are  going  to  dine  with  him  to-morrow.  The  crim- 
inal cases  here  are  very  trifling,  and  not  much  to  be  done 
in  the  civil  line ;  then  there  is  only  the  little  county  of 
Radnor,  before  we  get  to  Chester,  the  last  place  on  the 
circuit,  but  with  more  than  twice  as  much  crime  as  all 
Wales  put  together.  Having  a  beech  tree  struck  by 
lightning  on  one's  grounds  [Lady  Denman  had  reported 
this  from  Stony  Middleton]  has  a  very  grand  effect. 
You  do  not  say  which  beech  it  is ;  I  shall  make  it  out  in 
a  moment  by  description." 

From  Chester  Denman  wrote  to  his  brother  judge,  Sir 

1  First  wife  of  present  Lord  Denman. 

4  In  their  walking  tour.     See  vol.  i.  pp.  17,  18. 


i337-J  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  3t 

John  Taylor  Coleridge  (then  on  the  Northern  Circuit 
with  Mr.  Baron  Parke),  the  first  of  the  series  of  letters 
which  that  eminent  and  learned  person  has  preserved, 
and  kindly  placed  at  the  disposal  of  his  old  friend's 
family  for  the  purposes  of  the  present  memoir.  It  re- 
lates, amongst  other  things,  to  the  appointment  of  his 
third  son,  Richard,  to  the  Clerkship  of  the  Assize,  which 
had  just  been  vacated  on  the  South  Wales  Circuit,  by 
the  sudden  death  of  its  former  incumbent,  and  is  a  proof 
of  Denman's  scrupulous  care  in  the  exercise  of  patron- 
age. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — I  can  not  return  your  visit  by 
proxy,  because  my  marshal  left  me  at  Presteign  [assize 
town  of  Radnorshire]  on  his  way  to  Ireland.  I  have 
seen  your  cause  list  [at  Liverpool],  and  wish  you  a  good 
deliverance.  Vaughan  [Mr.  Baron  Vaughan,  who,  after 
taking  the  North  Wales  Circuit,  had  joined  the  Chief 
Justice  at  Chester]  will  have  twenty  causes  here  ;  and  I 
have  near  fifty  prisoners,  some  for  very  bad  offenses." 

"  Alderson1  wrote  me  a  letter  from  Wells,  with  a  much 
better  account  of  Williams  and  with  this  P.  S. :  'Williams 
has  respited  one  of  the  convicts  at  Exeter,  and  I  am 
clear  he  is  innocent.  God  be  praised  that  he  was  not 
hanged  on  Saturday  week.'  What  does  Parke  say  of  the 
confessions  at  Shrewsbury  respecting  the  man  tried 
before  him  in  '35,  and  before  me  in  '36?  I  am  not  over 
confident  in  the  truth  of  scapegoat  confessions,  yet  that 
statement  must  produce  its  effect.  These  things  make 
me  more  anxious  for  the  Bill  [Prisoners'  Counsel  Bill] 
passing,  which  will  give  every  fair  advantage  to  a  pris- 
oner; but  I  fear  there  will  be  no  alteration  of  the  law 
this  Session,  and  we  must  go  on  another  year  trying  in 
a  manner  pronounced  unsatisfactory  by  both  Houses  of 
Parliament.* 

"Poor  Caliban2  died  of  apoplexy  at  Brecon.  I  wish 
you  and  Parke  would  tell  me  whether  it  would  be  quite 

1  Mr.  Baron  Alderson,  born  1787,  senior  wrangler,  first  Smith's  prizeman 
and  senior  medalist,  1809  ;  Judge  of  Common  Pleas,  1830  ;  Baron  of  Ex- 
chequer, 1834  ;  died  1857,  set.  70 ;  more  than  twenty-seven  years  on  the 
Bench. 

1  It  received  the  Royal  assent  on  August  20  of  this  year  (1836). 

'Nickname  of  Mr.  Jones,  Clerk  of  Assize  on  the  South  Wales  Circuit. 


32  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1834— 

right  that  I  should  give  the  office  to  my  son  Richard, 
who  can,  I  doubt  not,  do  the  work  very  well.  The  place 
is  said  to  be  worth  ^800  a  year.  How  is  that  possible? 
^500  would  be  enormous  for  such  a  circuit.  I  knew  you 
would  like  the  Northern.  Remember  me  kindly  to 
Parke  and  the  sheriff." 

After  his  return  from  the  circuit,  Denman,  on  August 
23,  1836,  again  wrote  from  Middleton  to  his  brother 
judge,  announcing  that,  acting  on  the  advice  of  himself 
Parke,  and  Vaughan,  he  had  given  his  son  Richard  the 
appointment.1  He  then  proceeds  as  follows  with  refer- 
ence to  the  unusually  heavy  cause  list  that  Mr.  Justice 
Coleridge  had  before  him  at  Liverpool : 

''Now  for  yourself:  the  task  imposed  upon  you  I 
verily  believe  to  be  the  heaviest  that  ever  judge  under- 
went. This  would  give  me  no  uneasiness  (for  in  my 
sincere  opinion  none  ever  possessed  more  perfectly  all 
the  mental  qualities  required),  but  that  I  know  you 
sometimes  complain  on  the  score  of  health.  -  Let  me 
then  remind  you  that  your  first  duty  in  every  point  of 
view  is  to  pay  constant  attention  to  that  prime  object, 
and  religiously  avoid  all  extra  exertions  on  whatever 
pretense.  Let  everything  take  its  own  course  as  much 
as  possible,  and  flow  in  its  accustomed  channel.  I  hope 
you  may  dispense  with  the  modern  practice  of  summing 
up — so  much  at  variance  with  the  meaning  of  the  word 
— and  merely  recapitulate  the  great  points  of  the  evi- 
dence. Another  commonplace  counsel  I  venture  to 
throw  in,  '  Discard  all  anxiety.'  This  demands  a  great 
effort,  which,  however,  may  be  successfully  made,  and 
will  fully  repay  the  trouble. 

"  I  have  now  another  suggestion  to  offer.  Whether 
you  finish  at  Lancaster  or  Liverpool  you  are  within  a 
day's  journey  of  this  place  [Stony  Middleton];  and,  as  I 
understand  Lady  Coleridge  is  at  Scarborough,  I  don't 
think  you  could  have  a  more  convenient  point  of  re- 
union. We  have  plenty  of  room  for  all  your  party,  can 
find  beautiful  rides  at  a  short  distance  for  any  time  you 
can  stay,  and  shall  be  delighted  to  receive  you.  Lady 

1  The  Hon.  Richard  Denman  held  this  appointment  till  1839,  when,  on 
the  death  of  Mr.  Gould,  he  was  made  Clerk  of  Assize  to  the  Home  Circuit, 
an  office  he  still  holds.  He  is  now  the  senior  of  all  the  Clerks  of  Assize. 


I837-J  JUDICIAL     CIRCUITS.  33 

Coleridge  had  better  come  rather  earlier  than  the  ex- 
pected period  of  your  release,  and,  if  you  will  tell  me  her 
present  address,  my  wife  will  immediately  write  to  her. 
I  really  should  hope  to  provide  no  disagreeable  relaxa- 
tion from  your  labors,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  no 
arrangement  could  be  more  convenient." 

Denman  always  took  a  great  interest  in  the  jurispru- 
dence and  legal  literature  of  the  United  States,  and 
never  failed  to  pay  every  attention  in  his  power  to  any 
members  of  the  American  Bar  who  brought  letters  to 
him  from  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Mr.  Benjamin 
Rand,  an  eminent  advocate  in  Boston,  who,  in  1835, 
had  been  in  London,  and  was  there  received  by  the 
Chief  Justice  with  his  usual  courtesy,  sent  him,  on  his 
return  to  the  United  States,  a  series  of  the  most  recent 
reports  then  published  of  the  Supreme  Courts  of  the  re- 
spective States  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts.  Denman, 
while  on  the  South  Wales  Circuit,  acknowledged  the 
gift  in  a  letter,  from  which  the  following  are  extracts : 

"  South  Wales  Circuit:  July  17,  1836. 

"  Dear  Sir, — Your  great  kindness  imposes  on  me  no 
light  task,  which  is  rendered  more  difficult  by  my  delay 
in  performing  it.  I  had  earnestly  desired  to  become,  in 
some  degree,  acquainted  with  the  contents  of  your  valu- 
able present  before  answering  your  letter ;  but  the 
Terms  and  Nisi  Prius  have  been  too  strong  for  me,  and  I 
find  myself  among  the  mountains  of  Wales,  at  the  seat 
of  my  friend,  Sir  John  Nichol,  traveling  an  easy  circuit, 
before  I  have  been  able  to  tell  you  how  much  I  am 
flattered  by  your  remembrance. 

"  Englishmen  must  always  regard  with  pride  and  satis- 
faction the  share  their  country  has  had  in  forming  the 
legal  institutions  of  your  enlightened  community  ;  and  I 
am  satisfied  that  we  may,  in  return,  derive  great  benefit 
from  studying  the  system  adopted  by  you,  and  can- 
vassing the  alterations  you  have  made.  Our  municipal 
law  will  thus  be  always  improving;  and  it  is  essential  for 
uniformity  of  decision  throughout  the  civilized  world, 
that  we  should  be  apprised  of  your  proceedings  on  in- 
ternational and  commercial  questions.  Even  in  the  ap- 
plication of  those  general  principles  of  law  on  which  all 
believe  themselves  to  be  agreed,  our  errors  may  be  cor- 
ii.— 3 


34  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1834— 

rected  by  watching  the  conduct  of  our  neighbors,  and 
cur  deficiencies  supplied  by  what  they  have  effected. 

"  Do  me  the  favor,  dear  Sir,  to  place  on  your  shelves 
a  copy  of  the  decisions  of  my  illustrious  friend,  Brougham, 
when  Chancellor. 

"  I  am  your  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

"  T.  DENMAN." 

In  the  course  of  September  of  this  vacation,  Den- 
man,  with  his  wife  and  several  members  of  his  family, 
passed  some  days  at  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's,  at 
Chatsworth,  whence  he  wrote  the  following  to  his  sister, 
Mrs.  Baillie : 

"  Chatsworth:  Monday,  September  n,  1836. 

"  Quarter  before  seven,  i>.  M. 

"  My  dear  Sister, — I  have  not  had  an  idle  moment  till 
now.  when  I  am  waiting  till  Theodosia  [Lady  Denman] 
is  dressed,  to  take  her  down  to  dinner.  She  and  I, 
Joseph  and  Margaret,  are  the  party  here,  Bessie  and 
Richard  being  unavoidably  left  behind  to  entertain  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  R.  Vevers  [his  brother  and  sister-in-law],  who 
unluckily  fixed  for  their  visit  the  very  day  of  our  invita- 
tion here.  I  hope  you  have  enjoyed  your  stay  in  the 
country  as  much  as  I  have ;  mine  will  be  inter- 
rupted next  week,  when  I  shall  have  to  sit  at  the  Old 
Bailey.  I  fear  you  will  not  return  to  town  during  my 
stay  there  ;  if  you  do,  and  the  autumn  smiles,  I  shall 
certainly  recommend  you  to  come  back  with  me  and 
look  at  our  verdant  valley.  If  the  Brodies  give  you  any 
account  of  us  before  that  time,  I  am  confident  it  will  be 
an  encouraging  one.  They  certainly  enjoyed  them- 
selves with  us,  and  it  was  most  delightful  to  me  to  talk 
over  all  existing  things  with  Ben  [Sir  Benjamin  Brodie] 
and  become  a  little  acquainted  with  his  family." 

"  Tuesday  morning.     Half-past  nine. 

"  I  had  intended  to  give  you  a  kind  of  '  Morning  Post ' 
account  of  our  last  night's  party,  but  the  servants  did 
not  call  me  till  a  late  hour;  and  I  must  soon  conclude — 
not  on  account  of  breakfast  (for  that  lasts  from  nine  till 
twelve),  but  that  my  letter  may  be  in  time  for  the  post. 
We  have  great  people  here — the  Duke  of  Rutland  and 
his  three  sons,  and  LadyAdeliza,  the  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Sutherland,  Lord  and  Lady  Tavistock,  some  Caven- 


JUDICIAL    CIRCUITS. 


35 


dishes,  and  many  others.  The  weather  has  been  dismal, 
chilly,  and  rainy.  I  must  leave  off.  Do  offer  my  kind 
remembrances  to  all  your  party,  and  believe  me  always 
your  truly  affectionate  brother." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


THE  CASE  OF  STOCKDALE  V.  HANSARD — PRIVILEGE. 
A.  D.  1837  TO  1840.    ALT.  58  TO  61. 

FROM  the  spring  of  1837  to  the  spring  of  1840  Lord 
Denman  was,  from  time  to  time,  engaged  in  a  conflict, 
not  sought  by  him,  but  forced  upon  him,  with  the 
Commons  House  of  Parliament  on  the  question  of  privi- 
lege arising  out  of  the  well-known  case  of  Stockdale  v. 
Hansard. 

In  a  fragment — unfortunately  only  a  very  brief  frag- 
ment—  which  he  has  left  behind  him,  written  in  his  own 
hand,  relating  to  this  memorable  struggle,  and  which 
will  be  found  in  the  Appendix,  he  speaks  of  it  as  "the 
most  important  event  of  my  life,  and  that  on  which  my 
future  reputation  must  mainly  depend." 

No  attempt  will  here  be  made  to  weigh  the  authorities 
adduced  on  either  side  in  this  ably  and  exhaustively 
debated  question.  Those  specially  interested  in  legal 
and  constitutional  studies  will  find  ready  access  to  the 
authentic  materials  of  inquiry  in  the  published  Reports 
of  Parliament  and  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench.*  A 
concise  statement  of  the  principal  facts,  illustrated  by 
occasional  reference  to  Denman's  own  judgments,  speech- 
es, and  writings  on  the  subject,  is  all  that  seems  required 

'This  MS.  fragment  was  written  in  Tune,  1851,  the  year  after  his 
retirement  from  the  office  of  Chief  Justice.  It  is  given  entire  in  the  Appen- 
dix III. 

-"Ad.  and  Ellis."  vol.  ix.  p.  I,  and  for  the  Sheriffs  case,  vol.  xi.  p.  273 
The  "  Annual  Register"  for  1840,  chap,  ii.,  "  the  Privilege  Question,"  gives, 
at  large,  the  facts,  dates,  and  summary  of  the  Parliamentary  proceed- 
ing; and  Sir  Thomas  Erskine  May  in  his  "Constitutional  History  of 
England,"  vol.  i.  chap.  vii.  pp.  459-462,  states  clearly  and  in  very  brief 
compass  the  salient  points  and  principal  stages  of  the  controversy.  See 
also  Denman's  article  in  the  Quarter! v  Review  for  March,  1840,  art.  ix. 
vol.  Ixv. 


1840.]  STOCKDALE  \.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    37 

in  a  record  of  his  life  designed  rather  for  general  readers 
than  for  special  students  of  constitutional  law. 

The  House  of  Commons  in  the  session  of  1835  had  re- 
solved that  the  Parliamentary  Papers  and  Reports 
printed  for  the  use  of  the  House,  should  be  rendered 
accessible  to  the  public  by  purchase  at  the  lowest  price 
at  which  they  could  be  sold  (a  price  afterwards  fixed  at 
one  halfpenny  a  sheet);  that  a  sufficient  number  of  extra 
copies  should  be  printed  for  the  purpose;  and  that 
Messrs.  Hansard,  the  printers  of  the  House,  should  be 
appointed  to  conduct  the  sale  thereof. 

In  March,  1836,  a  report  of  the  Inspectors  of  Prisons 
for  the  Home  District  was  laid  before  the  House,  in  the 
course  of  which  the  Inspectors  stated  that  they  had 
found  in  Newgate  Gaol  some  copies  of  a  work  "On  the 
Generative  System,"  published  by  Stockdale,  which  they 
described  as  a  book  of  a  most  disgusting  nature,  con- 
taining plates  indecent  and  obscene  in  the  extreme.  The 
Court  of  Aldermen,  to  whom  it  was  referred  to  consider 
the  report  of  the  prison  inspectors  so  far  as  it  referred  to 
the  prison  of  Newgate,  defended  the  work  as  rather 
scientific  than  prurient.  The  Inspectors,  in  reply,  denied 
"  that  the  book  was  a  scientific  work,  or  that  the  pKtes 
were  purely  anatomical,  calculated  only  to  excite  the 
attention  of  persons  connected  with  surgical  science  ;  " 
and  they  added :  "  We  adhere  to  the  terms  we  have 
already  employed  as  those  only  by  which  to  characterize 
such  a  book."  They  further  stated,  "  We  have  also  ap- 
plied to  several  medical  booksellers,  who  all  gave  it  the 
same  character,  and  described  it  as  one  of  Stockdale's 
obscene  books.  They  said  it  never  was  considered  as  a 
medical  work  ;  that  it  never  was  written  for  or  bought 
by  members  of  the  profession  as  such  ;  but  was  intended 
to  take  young  men  in  by  inducing  them  to  give  an  ex- 
orbitant price  for  an  indecent  work." 

The  Report  and  Reply  of  the  Inspectors  were  printed 
and  published  by  Messrs.  Hansard,  by  order  of  the 
House,  and  in  pursuance  of  the  resolutions  of  1835  and 
1836. 

On  November  7,  1836,  Stockdale  brought  an  action 
against  Messrs.  Hansard  for  publishing  the  report  con- 
taining the  above  passages,  which  he  complained  of  as 


38  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.         [1837— 

libelous  and  defamatory.  Messrs.  Hansard,  wno  were 
very  ably  defended,  their  leading  counsel  being  Lord 
Campbell,  then  Sir  John  Campbell,  Attorney-General, 
put  two  pleas  on  the  record — I,  notguilty  (under  which  it 
was  open  to  the  defendants  to  contend  that  the  publica- 
tion, under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  was  privileged, 
and  therefore  not  a  libel);  2,  a  justification  on  the  ground 
of  the  truth  of  the  alleged  libel. 

The  cause  came  on  to  be  tried  before  Lord  Denman 
at  the  Middlesex  sittings,  after  Hilary  Term,  on  February 
7,  1837. 

On  the  first  issue  the  Chief  Justice  at  the  trial  expressed 
a  strong  opinion  that  the  publication  of  the  Report  of 
the  prison  inspectors,  considering  the  circumstances  un- 
der which  that  report  had  been  made,  was,  in  law,  a  privi- 
leged publication,  and  could  not  be  made  the  subject  of 
an  action  for  libel ;  and  he  offered  to  reserve  this  ques- 
tion for  the  opinion  of  the  full  Court — an  offer  which  the 
Attorney-General  declined.  On  the  second  issue — that, 
namely,  whether  the  alleged  libel  was  not  justified  by 
the  indecent  and  objectionable  character  of  Stock-dale's 
book — Lord  Denman,  afcer  a  pretty  clear  intimation  of 
his  own  opinion  on  the  point,  left  it  to  the  jury  to  say 
whether,  in  their  judgment,  the  defendants  would  not, 
on  this  second  issue,  be  entitled  to  a  verdict.  The  jury, 
after  attentively  examining  the  book,  which  had  been 
produced  in  court  and  commented  on  with  deserved 
severity  by  the  defendants'  counsel,  took  this  view,  and, 
on  the  second  issue,  whicli  in  effect  decided  the  case,  found 
a  verdict  for  the  defendants. 

The  Attorney-General,  however,  pressed  strongly  for 
a  direction  in  favor  of  the  defendants  on  the  ground  of 
privilege  ;  on  the  ground,  namely,  that  the  publication 
was  justified  by  reason  of  having  taken  place  under  the 
authority  of  the  House  of  Commons'  resolutions. 

Pressed  upon  this  point,  the  Chief  Justice,  in  vigor- 
ous and  emphatic  language,  denied  both  the  power  in 
the  House  of  creating  such  privilege,  and  also  the  oper- 
ation of  such  supposed  privilege  to  suspend,  alter,  or 
supersede  any  legal  remedy  to  which  an  Englishman  was 
entitled  by  the  known  laws  of  his  country. 

The  substance  of  what  fell  from  the  Chief  Justice  on 


1840.]  STOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    39 

this  point,  is  thus  given  in  the  report  of  the  trial,  pub- 
lished in  The  Times  of  February  8,  1837: 

"  On  the  third  point  that  has  been  submitted  to  you, 
namely,  that  this  is  a  privileged  publication,  I  am  bound 
to  say  (as  it  comes  before  me  as  a  point  of  law  for  my 
direction)  that  I  entirely  dissent  from  the  law  laid  down 
by  the  learned  counsel  for  the  defendants.  I  am  not 
.aware  of  the  existence,  in  this  country,  of  any  body 
whatever,  which  can  privilege  any  servant  of  theirs  to 
publish  libels  on  any  individual.  Whatever  arrange- 
ments may  be  made  between  the  House  of  Commons 
and  any  publishers  whom  they  may  employ,  I  am  of 
opinion  that  the  person  who  publishes  that  in  his  public 
shop,  and  especially  for  money,  which  can  be  injurious 
and  possibly  ruinous  to  any  one  of  His  Majesty's  sub- 
jects, must  answer  in  a  court  of  justice  to  that  subject, 
if  he  challenges  him  for  that  libel.  /  wish  to  say  so  em- 
phatically and  distinctly,  because  I  think,  if  on  the  first 
opportunity  that  arose  in  a  court  of  justice  on  such  a  ques- 
tion, that  point  'cvere  to  be  left  unsatisfactorily  explained, 
the  judge  who  sat  there  might  become  an  accomplice  in  the 
destruction  of  the  liberties  of  Jus  country,  and  expose  every 
individual  w/io  lived  in  it  to  a  tyranny  no  man  ought  to 
submit  to.  Therefore,  on  this  issue,  my  direction  to  you, 
subject  to  question  hereafter,  is,  that  the  fact  of  the 
House  of  Commons  having  directed  Messrs.  Hansard  to 
publish  all  their  Parliamentary  Reports  and  Papers,  is 
no  justification  for  them,  or  any  bookseller,  in  publish- 
ing a  Parliamentary  Report  containing  a  libel  against 
any  man." 

Lord  Denman,  in  the  MS.  fragment  already  referred 
to,  thus  states  the  position  assumed  by  the  Attorney- 
General  at  the  trial,  and  his  own  mode  of  dealing  with 
it: 

"  Ultimately,  this  position  was  maintained — that  the 
paper,  admitting  it  to  be  both  libelous  and  untrue, 
might  yet,  under  order  of  the  House  of  Commons,  be 
published  to  the  plaintiff's  injury  without  his  having  any 
legal  redress. 

"The  doctrine  on  which  this  audacious  proposition 
was  founded,  was  soon  averred  and  maintained — that  the 
House  of  Commons  is  the  sole  judge  of  its  own  priv- 


40  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1837— 

ileges — in  other  words,  that  it  has  power,  by  the  Consti- 
tution of  England,  to  make  anything  lawful  which  it  de- 
clares to  be  done  in  virtue  of  its  privilege;  or,  in  still 
more  general  language,  that  we  in  England  live  under  an 
absolute  despotism,  wielded  by  the  majority  of  the 
knights,  citizens,  and  burgesses  in  parliament  assembled 
for  the  time  being. 

"  Brought  free  to  face  with  this  alarming  doctrine, 
I  did  not  hesitate  to  denounce  it  in  strong  terms." 

In  his  admirable  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords,  de- 
livered on  April  6,  1840,  in  the  course  of  the  discussion 
that  immediately  preceded  the  close  of  the  controversy 
by  the  passing  of  the  Printed  Papers  Act  (3  and  4  Vic.  c. 
9),'  Lord  Denman  said,  in  reference  to  what  had  fallen 
from  him  at  the  trial: 

"  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty,  on  the  part  of  the  people  of 
England,  to  take  the  ground  I  had  taken,  and  to  say  that 
I  did  not  admit  the  claim  of  privilege  as  asserted,  and 
would  not  give  it  the  name  of  law.  I  may  have  expressed 
my  opinion  too  warmly  and  too  largely  ;  but  that  the 
doctrine  I  asserted  was  right,  I  was,  my  Lords,  at  that 
moment,  as  1  am  still,  convinced  ;  and  I  felt  that  if  I  had 
thrown  a  doubt  by  any  delay  in  declaring  my  opinion  on 
a  question  of  this  importance,  and  which  was  so  clear  to- 
myse'f,  I  should  have  betrayed  that  duty  which  I  was 
placed  in  the  Court  over  which  I  preside  principally  to 
discharge." 

Elsewhere,  in  the  same  speech  he  states  the  nature 
of  the  defense  set  up  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  this 
short  and  pointed  form: 

"  It  amounts  to  this,  my  Lords,  that  they  must  have  a 
riglit  to  sell  all  tkat  tliey  printed,  because  tliey  liad  a  right 
to  do  all  that  they  pleased.  My  lords  (he  added),  I  do  not 
understand  that  to  be  the  law  of  England.  If  it  be  so 
(he  says  in  another  part  of  the  same  speech),  the  people 
of  this  country  have  been  mistaken  for  years  and  centuries 
in  thinking  that  they  lived  in  a  land  of  freedom." 

In  the  MS.  fragment  of  1851  Lord  Denman  says,  with 

reference  to  what  passed  on  the  first  trial,  after  he   had 

been  forced  by  the  persistence  of  the  Attorney-General 

to  declare  his  view  of  the  law  on  the  third  issue,  "  I  was 

'  This  speech  is  reorinted  in  the  Appendix,  No.  IV. 


1840.]  SIOCKDALEy.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.   41 

informed  and  believe  that  the  Attorney-General,  turning 
to  his  neighbors  in  Court,  expressed  his  concurrence  with 
the  law  as  I  laid  it  down." 

Lord  Denman  never  forgave  Lord  Campbell  for  the 
part  that  he  afterwards  took  in  reference  to  these  proceed- 
ings ;  not,  indeed,  for  laboring  to  establish  (as  he  was  no 
doubt  obliged  to  do  as  leading  counsel  for  the  Messrs. 
Hansard,  in  other  words,  for  the  House  of  Commons) 
that  the  exposition  of  law  with  which  he  had  thus  in 
conversation  expressed  his  concurrence,  was  erroneous, 
but  also  and  still  more  for  repeatedly  insinuating,  both 
orally  and  in  well-considered  written  publications,1  that 
Lord  Denman,  in  denouncing  as  he  did  the  claim  to 
privilege  set  up  by  the  House,  was  actuated  by  a  vain 
desire  of  putting  himself  forward  as  a  champion  of  the 
people's  rights  with  a  view  of  obtaining  popular  ap- 
plause ;  and  this,  when  none  knew  better  than  Lord 
Campbell  himself  that  the  expression  of  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice's opinion  on  the  question  of  privilege  was  not  in  any 
sense  volunteered  by  him,  but  was  forced  from  him  by 
the  part  taken  by  the  leading  counsel  for  the  defendant 
in  insisting  on  a  decision  upon  it. 

The  House  was  very  indignant  at  the  strong  and  de- 
cided terms  in  which  the  Chief  Justice  had  denounced 
the  claim  of  privilege  which  their  leading  counsel,  the 
Attorney-General,  had  set  up. 

"There  are  always  (continues  Lord  Denman  in  the 
fragment  already  cited),  some  zealots  of  privilege  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  none  of  its  members  are  more 
averse  than  other  people  to  the  possession  of  absolute 
power.  A  committee  was  speedily  appointed  to  con- 
sider my  proceeding.  My  nephew,  Sir  Archer  Croft,8 
attended  with  the  record  in  Stockdale  v.  Hansard,  and 
expressed  in  private  to  the  Attorney-General  his  pleasure 
at  hearing  that  the  doctrine  I  had  laid  down  had  his  ap- 
probation. The  Attorney-General  did  not  deny  it,  but 
said  that  considerable  doubts  were  entertained  about  it  by 
eminent  legal  members  of  the  House,  whom  he  named.  ' 

The   committee,3  on   May  8,  1837,  after  six  weeks  of 

'Such  as  his  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  and  of  the  Chief  Justices. 

*  One  of  the  Master's  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench. 

*  Among   the    members  of  this  committee  were   Lord  John   Russell,  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  Sir  William  Folleti,  Sir  Robert  Inglis,  and  Mr.  O'Connell. 


42  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEXMAN.  [1837— 

delibeiation,  reported  in  favor  of  the  exclusive  right  of 
the  House  of  Commons  to  judge  of  its  own  privileges, 
fortifying  their  conclusion  by  a  lengthened  and  elaborate 
reference  to  cases  and  precedents.1 

In  consequence  of  this  Report,  the  House,  on  May  31, 
1837,  passed  the  three  following  resolutions: 

"  i.  That  the  power  of  publishing  such  of  its  Reports, 
Votes,  and  Proceedings,  as  it  shall  deem  necessary  or 
conducive  to  the  public  interests,  is  an  essential  incident 
to  the  constitutional  functions  of  Parliament,  more 
especially  of  this  House,  as  the  representative  portion 
of  it. 

"  2.  That,  by  the  law  and  privilege  of  Parliament,  this 
House  has  the  sole  and  exclusive  jurisdiction  to  deter- 
mine upon  the  existence  and  extent  of  its  privileges, 
and  that  the  institution  or  prosecution  of  any  action, 
suit,  or  other  proceeding,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
them  into  discussion  before  any  Court  or  Tribunal  else- 
where than  in  Parliament,  is  a  high  breach  of  such 
privilege,  and  renders  all  parties  concerned  therein 
amenable  to  its  just  displeasure,  and  to  the  punishment 
consequent  thereon. 

"  3.  That  for  any  Court  or  Tribunal  to  decide  upon 
matters  of  privilege,  is  inconsistent  with  the  determina- 
tion of  either  House  of  Parliament,  and  is  a  breach  and 
contempt  of  the  privileges  of  Parliament." 

On  these  resolutions  Denman  thus  remarks,  in  the 
"  Observations  "  he  drew  up  and  printed  soon  after-  their 
publication  : 

"  Were  it  not  better  to  drop  the  name  of  privilege — 
which  holds  out  the  semblance  of  peculiar  rights  adapted 
to  the  proper  and  unquestioned  functions  of  Parliament — 
and  substitute  the  name  of  power  ?  The  Lords  came  to 
a  resolution  that  neither  House  of  Parliament  can,  by  its 
vote,  change  the  law  of  the  land  ;  but  the  Commons  have 
now  resolved  that  either  House  has  the  exclusive  power 
to  judge  of  the  existence  and  extent  of  its  own  powers, 
without  any  human  control.  Consider,  then,  for  a  mo- 

1  Soon  after  the  appearance  of  this  Report,  Denman  drew  up  and  printed, 
but  without  his  name,  a  very  .ible  paper,  entitled  "Observations  on  the 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  ''.''Use  of  Commons  on  the  publication  of 
Printed  Papers,"  dated  May  8,  1837. 


I84Q.J  STOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    43 

ment,  if  this  theory  should  become  practice,  what  effect 
it  would  have  on  the  mixed  constitution  of  England — • 
Kings,  Lords,  and  Commons? 

"The  head  of  the  State,  acting  through  the  agency  of 
responsible  officers,  can  do  no  act  v  hatever  without  the 
full  sanction  of  law.  He  claims  no  right  to  obstruct  the 
access  of  his  meanest  subject  to  the  temple  of  Justice, 
interposes  no  shield  between  his  most  favored  servant 
and  the  law,  and  wields  no  weapon  for  the  annoyance  of 
those  ministers  by  whom  its  behests  are  declared. 
Sheridan  once  happily  said  of  the  King  of  England,  '  In 
the  Legislative  branches  he  sees  his  equals,  and  in  the 
law  his  superior.'  But  we  are  now  told  that  his  superior, 
even  in  executive  proceedings,  is  to  be  found  in  either 
of  the  legislative  branches.  Let  the  Lords  or  Commons 
declare  the  most  ordinary  act  of  any  servant  of  the 
Crown  a  breach  of  privilege,  and  the  service  may  be 
thwarted,  the  agent  lodged  in  Newgate,  or  exposed  to 
any  other  punishment,  without  appeal  or  remedy.  And, 
as  in  the  daily  disputes  between  man  and  man,  either 
House  may  supersede  the  law,  and  give  its  award  in 
favor  of  either  parly,  so,  in  the  highest  concerns  of  the 
State,  the  interposition  of  either  may  hand  over  the 
power  of  acting  from  responsible  Ministers  of  the  Crown 
to  the  uncontrollable  hands  of  what  is  now  called 
privilege.'" 

Stockdale,  meanwhile,  shortly  before  the  passing  of 
these  resolutions,  having  purchased  a  second  copy  of  the 
Report,  had  brought  a  second  action  of  defamation  (as 
he  was  entitled  to  do  on  the  proof  of  any  fresh  instance 
of  sale  of  the  Report),  and  to  this  action  the  sole  defense 
put  on  the  record  by  the  Attorney-General  was  a  plea  of 
privilege,  justifying  the  publication  under  the  order  and 
resolution  of  the  House.  This  plea  was  demurred  to 
on  the  grounds,  "  I.  That  the  established  laws  of  the 
land  can  not  be  superseded,  suspended,  or  altered,  by  any 
resolution  or  order  of  the  House  of  Commons.  2.  That 
the  Commons  in  Parliament  assembled,  can  not,  by  any 
resolution  or  order,  create  any  new  privilege  inconsistent 
with  the  known  laws  of  the  land." 

The  demurrer  came  on  for  argument  early  in  Trinity 

1  "  Observations  on  Resolutions  of  May  8,  1837,"  pp.47,  48. 


44  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.         [1837— 

Term,  1839.  ^  was  most  ably  and  exhaustively  argued 
on  both  sides  (Mr.  Curwoocl  for  Stockdale  and  Sir  J. 
Campbell  for  the  Messrs.  Hansard).1  At  the  close  of  the 
argument  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  was  unanimous, 
and  Denham  and  Littledale  were  prepared  to  deliver 
judgment  immediately.  Patterson  and  Coleridge,  how- 
ever (and  very  properly,  considering  the  importance  of 
the  question  and  the  vast  mass  of  authorities  brought 
before  the  Court),  thought  it  better  that  time  should  be 
taken  for  the  preparation  of  well-considered  written  judg- 
ments, which  having  accordingly  been  drawn  up,  were 
read  seriatim  by  the  various  members  of  the  Court  on 
May  31,  1 839.' 

The  judgment  of  Lord  Denman  alone,  which  is  very 
able,  occupies  54  pages  (from  p.  107  to  161)  of  Messrs. 
Adolphus  and  Ellis's  reports  ;  fortunately,  however,  from 
its  great  clearness  and  method,  it  will  be  possible,  with- 
out any  material  omissions,  to  state  the  substance  of  it — - 
principally  in  Lord  Denman's  own  language — in  much 
smaller  compass. 

After  stating  the  terms  of  the  Plea  of  Privilege,  Lord 
Denman  said : 

"  This  plea  it  is  contended  establishes  a  good  defense 
to  the  action  on  various  grounds: 

"  I.  The  grievance  complained  of  is  an  act  done  by 
order  of  the  House  of  Commons,  a  Court  superior  to  any 
Court  of  Law,  and  none  of  whose  proceedings  are  to  be 
questioned  in  any  way. 

"This  is  a  claim  for  an  arbitrary  power  to  authorize 
the  commission  of  any  act  whatever  on  behalf  of  a  body, 
which,  in  the  same  argument  is  admitted  not  to  be  the 
supreme  power  in  the  State. 

•'  The  supremacy  of  Parliament,  the  foundation  on 
which  the  claim  is  made  to  rest,  appears  to  me  com- 
pletely to  overturn  it,  because  the  House  of  Commons  is  not 
the  Parliament,  but  only  a  co-ordinate  and  component  part 
of  the  Parliament. 

1  Campbell,  who  was  thoroughly  convinced  he  was  in  the  righ-',  took  im- 
mense pains  with  his  speech,  which  extended  over  sixteen  hours — of  course 
not  consecutive. 

*  See  Lord  Denman's  statement  on  March  28,  1843,  in  the.  House  of 
Lords.  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  Series,  vol.  Ixvi.  pp.  1102,  1103. 


iS4o.J  STOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    45 

"That  sovereign  power  [the  Parliament]  can  make 
and  unmake  laws,  but  for  that  the  concurrence  of  the 
three  legislative  estates  is  necessary:  the  resolution  of  any 
one  of  them  can  not  alter  t/ie  law,  or  place  any  one  beyond  its 
control.  This  proposition,  therefore,  is  absolutely  un- 
tenable and  abhorrent  to  the  first  principles  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  England.1 

"II.  The  next  defense  involved  in  the  plea  is,  that 
the  defendants  committed  the  grievance  by  order  of  the 
House  of  Commons  in  a  case  of  privilege  ;  and  that  each 
House  of  Parliament  is  the  sole  Judge  of  its  own  privileges. 

•'  This  last  proposition  requires  to  be  first  considered  ; 
for  if  the  Attorney-General  was  right  in  contending,  as 
he  did  more  than  once,  in  express  terms,  that  the  House 
of  Commons,  by  claiming  anything  as  its  privilege,  thereby 
makes  it  matter  of  privilege  ;  and  also  that  its  own  decision 
on  its  otvn  claim  is  binding  and  conclusive,  then  plainly 
this  Court  can  not  proceed  to  any  inquiry  into  the  mat- 
ter, and  has  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  declare  the  claim 
well  founded  because  it  has  been  made."2 

After  stating  that  this  was  the  form  in  which  he  un- 
derstood the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  to 
have  asserted  its  privilege,  and  the  House,  by  a  large 
majority,  to  have  adopted  that  assertion,  the  Chief 
Justice  proceeded  as  follows: 

"  It  is  not  without  the  utmost  respect  and  deference 
that  I  proceed  to  examine  what  has  been  promulgated 
by  so  high  an  authority.  Most  willingly  would  I  decline 
to  enter  on  an  inquiry  which  may  lead  to  differing  from 
that  great  and  powerful  assembly.  But,  when  one  of  my 
fellow-subjects  presents  himself  before  me,  in  these 
Courts,  demanding  justice  for  an  injury,  it  is  not  at  my 
option  to  grant  or  to  withhold  redress.  I  am  bound  to 
afford  it,  if  the  law  declares  him  entitled  to  it." 

The  Chief  Justice  then  proceeds,  by  the  light  of  prece- 
dents, to  examine  the  proposition  that  the  opinion 
either  House  may  entertain  of  its  own  privileges  is 
necessarily  correct,  and  its  declaration  of  them  absolutely 
binding. 

After  exhaustively  examining  the  authorities  cited  by 
the  Attorney-General  to  establish  that  proposition,  and 

'Ad.  and  Ell.  ix.  pp.  107,  108.  "  Ad.  and  Ell.  ix.  p.  108 


46  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1837— 

to  prove  that  questions  of  Parliamentary  privilege  are  in 
no  case  examinable  at  law,  he  arrives  clearly  at  the  con- 
clusion that  they  establish  no  such  proposition.  On  the 
contrary,  he  finds  that  his  great  predecessor,  Holt, 
having,  on  three  several  occasions,  found  himself  com- 
pelled to  deal  with  questions  of  Parliamentary  privilege, 
on  all  of  them  not  only  examined  the  claim  of  privilege, 
but  gave  judgment  against  it.1 

He,  of  course,  founded  himself  chiefly  on  the  great 
case  of  Ashby  v.  W'hite,  in  which  Holt,  against  the 
opinion  of  other  judges  of  this  Court,  decided,  and  the 
House  of  Lords,  confirming  Holt's  judgment,  held,  that 
even  in  questions  of  Parliamentary  elections — a  matter, 
if  any,  peculiary  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  House 
of  Commons — that  Courts  of  Law  were  not  bound  by  the 
opinion  of  the  Commons  House  on  matters  of  election, 
whereon  that  House  claimed  the  sole  right  of  judging, 
and  had  actually  given  judgment  ;  but  that  the  law  must 
take  its  course,  as  if  no  such  judgment  had  been  given 
by  the  House  of  Commons,  and  no  such  privilege 
claimed. 

Reverting,  then,  once  again,  from  precedent  to  princi- 
ple, Lord  Denman,  in  concluding  his  argument  as  to  this 
part  of  the  case,  says  :  "/#  truth,  no  practical  difference 
can  be  drawn  between  the  rig/it  to  sanction  all  things  under 
the  name  of  privilege,  and  the  right  to  sanction  all  things 
whatever  by  merely  ordering  tJiem  to  be  done. 

"  In  both  cases  the  law  must  be  superseded  by  one 
Assembly,  and  however  dignified  and  respectable  that 
body — in  whatever  degree  superior  to  all  temptations  of 
abusing  their  power — still,  the  power  claimed  is  arbitrary 
and  irresponsible,  in  itself  the  most  monstrous  and  in- 
tolerable of  all  abuses." 

On  the  second  point,  therefore,  the  opinion  of  Lord 
Denman  was  equally  as  clear  as  on  the  first,  and  his  deci- 
sion was  that  the  House  could  not  give  themselves  juris- 
diction by  merely  adjudging  that  they  possess  it. 

III.  The  Chief  Justice  then  proceeded  to  examine  the 
third  and  minor  question,  viz.  whether  the  particular 
privilege  claimed  in  this  case— the  privilege  of  publication 
— existed  in  law. 

1  See  Lord  Denman's  judgment  in  Ad.  and  Ell.  p.  134. 


1840.]  STOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    47 

The  proofs  that  it  must  so  exist,  he  said,  had  been 
based  on  three  ground? — Necessity,  Practice,  Universal 
Acquiescence. 

As  to  necessity,  he  observed,  that  the  supposed  necessity 
was  "  absolutely  non-proven,  and  had  dwindled  down,  in 
the  hands  of  the  Attorney-General  to  merely  a  very 
dubious  kind  of  expediency." 

As  to  its  expediency.  Lord  Denman  remarked — and  the 
remark  is  important,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  act  of  the  Legislature  that  closed  the  con- 
troversy— "  It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  gus.rd  myself 
against  being  supposed  to  discuss  the  expediency  of  keep- 
ing the  law  in  its  present  state,  or  introducing  any, 
and  what  alterations.  It  is  no  doubt  suspectible  of  im- 
provement, but  the  improvement  must  be  a  legislative  act; 
it  can  not  be  effected  under  the  name  of  privilege." ' 

As  to  practice  and  long  acquiescence,  he  denied  that  any 
proof  had  been  given,  or  could  be  found  of  any  practice 
to  authorize  the  printing  and  publication  by  the  House 
of  papers  injurious  to  the  character  of  a  fellow-subject. 

Even  were  it  otherwise,  he  observed,  "The  practice 
of  a  ruling  power  in  the  State,  coupled  with  public 
acquiescence,  is  but  a  feeble  proof  of  its  legality.  I 
know  not  how  long  the  practice  of  raising  ship-money 
had  prevailed  before  the  right  was  denied  by  Hampden. 
General  Warrants  had  been  issued  and  enforced  for 
centuries  before  they  were  quashed  in  action  by  Wilkes 
and  his  associates,  who,  by  bringing  them  to  the  test  of 
law,  procured  their  condemnation  and  abandonment." 

Towards  the  conclusion  of  his  judgment  Lord  Denman 
thus  referred  to  the  remarks  that  had  fallen  from  him  at 
Nisi  Prius,  when  the  case  was  first  tried  before  him  in 
1837: 

"  I  can  not  lament  that  I  gave  utterance,  at  the  proper 
occasion,  to  sentiments  of  which  I  deeply  felt  the  im- 
portance, as  well  as  the  truth  ;  nor  can  I  doubt  that  a 
full  consideration  of  the  whole  subject  will  lead  to  bene- 
ficial results.  One  thing  alone  I  regret — a  warmth  of 
expression  in  asserting  what  law  and  justice  appeared  to 
me  to  require,  which  may  have  rendered  it  more  difficult 

lAd.  and  Ell.  ix.  p.  153. 


48  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1837— 

for  the  late  House  of  Commons  to  recede  from  any  claim 
which  it  had  advanced.1 

"  Upon  the  whole  matter  (said  Lord  Denman  in  con- 
clusion) I  am  of  opinion  that  the  defense  pleaded  is  no 
defense  in  law,  and  that  our  judgment  must  be  for  the 
plaintiffs  on  this  demurrer." 

This  celebrated  judgment,  notwithstanding  its  length 
— a  length  not  greater  than  was  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  purpose  of  adequate  judicial  exposition — will  be  found, 
in  the  last  analysis,  to  be  mainly  founded  on  a  single 
broad  principle,  supported  by  a  single  illustrious  pre- 
.cedent. 

Tte  principle  is  that  no  one  branch  of  the  Legislature, 
acting  separately  and  alone,  can,  by  any  so-called  privi- 
lege, alter,  suspend,  or  supersede  the  established  laws  of 
the  land,  so  as  to  prevent  the  subject  from  resorting  to 
any  remedy  or  enforcing  any  right  which  those  laws  have 
provided  for  or  conferred  on  them. 

The  precedent  is  the  famous  judgment  in  Ashby  v.  White 
— the  crowning  glory  of  Lord  Holt — whom  Lord  Denman 
always  revered  as  the  greatest  among  his  predecessors 
in  all  the  long  and  distinguished  roll  of  the  Chief  Justices 
of  England. 

Among  the  many  contributions  which  Denman,  with 
unwearied  zeal  and  diligence,  made  to  the  elucidation  of 
this  great  question,  few  were  more  important  than  his 
publication,  in  1837,  of  the  judgment  in  Ashby  v.  117, iti, 
and  of  the  cognate  case  of  John  Paty  and  others,  from  a 
manuscript  prepared  under  the  eye  of  Lord  Holt  him- 
self, and  which  was  much  fuller  and  more  accurate  than 
the  text  heretofore  printed  in  the  contemporary  "  Law 
Reports."  This  publication,  which  appeared  without 
Lord  Denman's  name,8  shortly  after  the  House  of  Com- 
mons had  passed  the  resolutions  of  May,  1837,  was  pre- 
ceded by  an  able  and  argumentative  introduction,  from 
which  the  following  passage  may  be  extracted  : 

"  The  genuine  and  full  report  of  his  (Lord  Holt's)  judg- 
ment is  believed  to  be  now  first  published,  and  is  highly 

1  Ad.  and  Ell.  ix.  p.  150. 

2  "  The  Judgments  delivered  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  Holt  in  the  Case  of 
Ashby  v.  Wliitt\  and  in  the  Case  of  John  Paty  and  others."      Printed   from 
original  manuscripts,  with  an   Introduction  :  Saunders  and    Benning,  1837. 
The  citation  in  the  text  is  from  p.  vii.  of  the  Introduction. 


1840.]  SJOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.   49 

deserving  of  attention.  The  Lords'  Report  on  this  sub- 
ject (6  Parl.  Hist.  420)  is  a  noble  document,  but  it  is 
thought  that  Holt's  revised  statements  of  his  own  views 
ought  by  no  means  to  be  lost.  Besides  the  learning  and 
reasoning,  who  can  fail  to  admire  his  plain  and  solemn 
statement  of  the  sense  of  judicial  duty;  his  far-sighted 
appreciation  of  the  consequence  of  the  disputed  privi- 
lege on  the  whole  frame  of  government  in  England;  and 
the  manly  spirit  which  indicates  the  right  of  all  English- 
men to  assert  their  claims,  and  that  of  their  advocates  to 
maintain  them,  and  that  of  the  sworn  judges  of  the  land 
to  decide  upon  them?" 

The  spirit  here  described  as  that  which  animated  the 
great  constitutional  Chief  Justice  of  an  older  time,  is 
precisely  that  which  animated  his  great  successor  ;  and 
England  has  equal  reason  to  be  proud  of  both. 

Judgment  on  the  second  action  having  been  thus  given 
for  the  plaintiff  on  the  demurrer,  his  damages  were 
assessed  at  .£100,  a  result  which  by  no  means  satisfied 
Stockdale,  who,  during  the  parliamentary  recess  of  1839, 
having  bought  a  third  copy  of  the  report,  brought  a  third 
action  against  Messrs.  Hansard. 

To  the  third  action  the  defendants  (in  obedience  to 
the  order  of  the  House)  put  in  no  defense  whatever. 
Judgment  accordingly  went  by  default,  and  on  a  writ  of 
inquiry  in  the  Sheriff's  Court,  damages  were  assessed  at 
.£600,  which  amount,  together  with  an  additional  £40 
for  costs,  &c.,  was  levied  by  the  Sheriffs  (Messrs.  Evans 
and  Wheelton)1  on  December  16,  1839. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  next  Hilary  Term  (January  n, 
1840)  Stockdale  obtained  a  rule  returnable  on  the  i/th, 
ordering  the  Sheriff  to  pay  over  to  him  the  £640  which 
they  had  thus  levied. 

On  the  day  before  that  fixed  for  the  return  of  this 
rule — Jan.  16,  1840 — Parliament  met,  and  vigorous 
measures  were  at  once  taken  by  the  House  of  Commons 
to  assert  its  dignity. 

On  the  very  day  of  its  meeting,  the  House,  on  the 

1  Messrs.  Wheelton  and  Evans,  the  Sheriffs  of  London,  in  law  constituted 
together  the  Sheriff  of  Middlesex,  which  throughout  these  proceedings,  was 
their  proper  legal  style,  but  they  are  generally  in  the  text   spoken  of  as  the 
Sheriffs,  in  the  plural. 
II.— 4 


50  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1837— 

motion  of  Lord  John  Russell,  after  an  animated  debate, 
resolved,  by  a  majority  of  119,  that  Stockdale  and  his 
attorney,  Thomas  Burton  Howard,  be  called  to  the  bar; 
by  a  majority  of  89  they  came  to  the  same  resolution  in 
the  case  of  the  Sheriffs. 

On  January  17  Stockdale  was  committed  to  Newgate, 
Howard  (having  expressed  regret  for  his  fault)  escaping 
with  a  severe  reprimand. 

On  the  2Oth  the  Sheriffs  were  ordered  to  refund  to 
Messrs.  Hansard  the  moneys  which  they  had  levied,  and 
which  they  admitted  to  be  still  in  their  possession  and 
control. 

The  Sheriffs,  believing  they  were  bound  to  do  so  by 
their  duty  to  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  whose  sworn 
officers  they  were,  having  declined  to  comply  with  this 
order,  it  was  resolved,  on  the  2 1st,  by  a  majority  of  101, 
that  they  should  be  committed  to  the  custody  of  the 
Sergeant-at-Arms,  and  committed  accordingly  they 
were. 

The  imprisonment  of  these  two  gentlemen — "  innocent 
victims,"  as  Sir  Erskine  May  well  calls  them,  "of  con- 
flicting jurisdiction  " — excited  a  considerable  amount  of 
public  commiseration. 

On  January  24  the  Sheriffs  sued  out  their  writ  of 
Habeas  Corpus,  to  which  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  was 
directed  to  make  a  general  return,  that  he  held  the 
bodies  of  the  Sheriffs  by  virtue  of  a  warrant,  under  the 
hand  and  seal  of  the  Speaker,  for  a  contempt  and  breach 
of  the  privileges  of  the  House. 

The  Attorney-General,  Sir  John  Campbell,  in  recom- 
mending the  House  to  adopt  this  course,  had  informed 
them,  and  with  entire  accuracy,  that  the  House  had 
power  to  commit  for  contempt,  and  that  when  it  appeared 
generally,  on  the  face  of  the  return  to  the  writ,  that  it 
had  so  committed,  the  Court  to  which  the  writ  was  re- 
turned would  have  no  power  whatever  to  question  the 
ground  of  the  committal,  or  go  into  any  inquiry  as  to  its 
propriety  or  legality. 

The  legal  principle  thus  stated  by  the  Attorney-Gen- 
eral was  too  firmly  established  to  admit  of  any  serious 
discussion  ;  and,  accordingly,  when,  on  Jan.  25,  the 
Sheriffs  were  brought  up  in  custody  of  the  Serge iiit-at- 


1840.]  STOCKDALEv.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    51 

Arms,  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  having  overruled 
certain  technical  objections  to  the  form  of  the  warrant 
and  the  return,  had  no  alternative  but  to  direct,  as  it 
did,  that  the  prisoners  must  return  to  the  custody  whence 
they  came.1 

Lord  Denman,  having  stated  it  as  clear  law  that  the 
Court  of  Queen's  Bench  could  not  examine  into  the 
validity  of  the  commitment,  but  must  presume  that  what 
any  Court,  much  more  what  either  House  of  Parliament, 
acting  on  great  legal  authority,  takes  upon  it  to  pro- 
nounce a  contempt,  is  so,  added,  with  grave  sarcasm, 
"  Indeed,  it  would  be  unseemly  to  suspect  that  a  body 
acting  under  such  sanctions  as  a  House  of  Parliament, 
would,  in  making  its  warrant,  suppress  facts  which,  if 
discussed,  might  entitle  the  person  committed  to  his 
liberty."* 

The  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  though 
thus  precluded  by  the  mode  in  which  the  Attorney- 
General  had  framed  his  warrant,  from  effectively  inter- 
posing for  the  liberation  of  the  Sheriffs,  thought  it  right 
to  take  the  opportunity  of  openly  declaring  their  adhe- 
sion to  the  celebrated  judgment  pronounced  by  the 
Court,  nearly  eight  months  before.  Lord  Denman  did  so 
in  the  following  bold  and  manly  terms: 

"  I  think  it  necessary  to  declare  that  the  judgment 
delivered  by  this  Court  last  Trinity  term  in  the  case  of 
Stockdale  v.  Hansard  appears  to  me  in  all  respects  cor- 
rect. The  Court  there  decided  that  there  was  no  Power 
in  this  country  above  being  questioned  by  Law.  The 
House  of  Commons  there  attempted  to  place  its  privi- 
lege on  the  footing  of  an  unquestionable  and  unlimited 
power.  I  endeavored  to  establish  that  the  claim  ad- 
vanced in  that  case  tended  to  despotic  power,  which 
could  not  be  recognized  or  exist  in  this  country,  and  that 
the  privilege  of  publication  as  there  asserted  had  no 
legal  foundation. 

"  To  all  of  these  positions,  I,  on  further  consideration, 
adhere:  a// of  them  I  believe  in  my  conscience  to  be  true. 

"And  if  this  were  not  so,  it  is  strange  that  the  case 
should  not  have  been  brought  before  the  other  ten 

1  See  "Case  of  the  Sheriff  of  Middlesex,"  reported  in  Ad.  and  Ell.  xi.  p 
273.  *  Ad.  and  Ell.  xi.  p.  292. 


52  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1837— 

Judges  by  writ  of  eiror.  The  House  would  have  suffered 
no  loss  of  dignity  by  submitting  to  them  [the  Court  of 
Error]  the  question  it  had  already  laid  before  us.  In  the 
last  resort  a  further  appeal  might  have  been  made  to  the 
House  of  Lords. 

"  In  deciding  the  former  case  we  looked  to  the  law  as 
our  only  safe  guide,  discarding  all  considerations  of  sup- 
posed expediency ;  and,  under  the  same  guidance,  we 
have  examined  the  question  now  before  us.  In  the 
present  case  I  am  obliged  to  say  that  I  find  no  authority 
under  which  we  can  discharge  these  gentlemen  from  their 
imprisonment." 

The  following  passage  from  the  "Annual  Register" 
of  the  year  1840,  relating  to  this  application  for  the 
release  of  the  Sheriffs,  shows  the  nature  of  the  public 
feeling  which  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons 
had  already  begun  to  excite. 

"  On  the  next  day,  January  25,  Sir  William  Gossett  (the 
Sergeant-at-Arms)  appeared  in  the  Court  of  Queen's 
Bench  with  the  two  Sheriffs  in  his  custody,  who  were 
dressed  in  their  robes  of  office.  Their  situation  excited 
a  lively  interest,  and  the  Court  and  its  passages  were 
Crowded  to  excess.  While  proceeding  from  the  apart- 
nient  where  they  had  been  confined  to  the  Court,  they 
were  loudly  cheered  by  the  crowd  of  persons  assembled, 
who  seemed  to  feel  the  utmost  sympathy  for  their  dis- 
agreeable position.  This  was  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon ;  and  at  the  time  when  Sir  William  Gossett 
with  his  prisoners  reached  the  Court  the  Bench  was 
empty;  the  whole  of  the  fifteen  Judges  having  been  en- 
gaged during  the  day  in  hearing  the  point  argued  which 
had  been  reserved  at  the  trial  of  Frost.  Williams,  and 
Jones,  for  high  treason  at  Monmouth.  In  a  short  time, 
however,  Lord  Denman,  Mr.  Justice  Littledale,  Mr.  Jus- 
tice Williams,  and  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge,  took  their  seats, 
and  Sir  William  Gossett  immediately  handed  in  his 
return. 

Counsel  having  been  called  upon,  it  was  ably  contended 
by  Mr.  Richards,  Mr.  Watson,  and  Mr.  Kennedy,  on 
behalf  of  the  Sheriffs,  that  they  were  entitled  to  their 
discharge — that  the  Court  would  take  cognizance  of  the 
particular  breach  of  privilege  of  which  it  was  alleged 


1840.]  STOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    53 

they  were  guilty;  and,  as  it  had  previously  decided 
against  that  privilege,  it  would  release  those  who  had 
merely  obeyed,  in  the  execution  of  their  duty,  its  own 
orders.  The  Court,  however,  thought  otherwise.  The 
Judges  gave  their  opinions  seriatim,  and  held  that  the 
return  to  the  habeas  corpus  was  good  and  sufficient — that 
they  could  not  presume  anything,  but  must  take  it  that 
the  Sheriffs  had,  in  some  way  or  other,  committed  a 
contempt  and  breach  of  the  privileges  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  that,  therefore,  they  could  only  remand 
them  to  the  custody  of  the  Sergeant-at-Arms.  It  was 
now  half-past  eight,  and  Sir  William  Gossett  retired 
from  the  Court  with  the  Sheriffs  in  his  custody. 

The  feeling  shown  on  this  occasion  against  the  impris- 
onment of  the  Sheriffs  was  very  strong,  and  the  members 
of  the  Bar  appeared  to  be  almost  unanimous  in  condemn- 
ing the  course  adopted  by  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  imprisoment  of  the  Sheriffs  was  of  some  duration, 
and  enforced  with  considerable  rigor.  A  motion  for 
their  discharge,  made  on  February  3,  was  rejected  by  a 
majority  of  71.  On  February  12,  indeed,  on  a  medical 
certificate  that  his  life  would  be  endangered  by  further 
confinement,  Mr.  Sheriff  Wheelton  was  discharged  ;  but 
on  February  14,  and  again  on  March  3,  a  similar  applica- 
tion was  refused  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Sheriff  Evans,  the 
House  not  being  satisfied  that  the  state  of  that  gentle- 
man's health  rendered  his  discharge  necessary  ;  nor  was 
he  released  from  confinement,  and  then  only  provision- 
ally, till  March  5,  after  the  introduction  of  the  "  Printed 
Papers  Bill." 

Meanwhile  the  irrepressible  Stockdale,  though  fast  in 
Newgate,  continued  to  exercise  his  malign  activity.  On 
January  25  he  had  caused  his  attorney,  Thomas  Burton 
Howard,  to  commence  a  fourth  action  against  the  Messrs. 
Hansard — a  fresh  act  of  contempt,  for  which  the  attor- 
ney was  sent  to  keep  company  in  Newgate  with  his  em- 
ployer. 

On  February  17  a  fifth  action  was  commenced  at  the 
instance  of  Stockdale,  by  the  attorney's  son,  which  re- 
sulted in  the  committal  the  next  day  of  Thomas  How- 
ard the  younger,  and  of  a  miserable  copying-clerk  in  his 
employment,  one  Thomas  Pearce. 


54  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1837— 

When  matters  had  reached  this  point,  it  was  univers- 
ally felt  that  the  dignity  and  character  of  the  House 
were  being  seriously  compromised.  The  public  feeling 
was  strongly  excited ;  placards  appeared  in  the  streets 
of  London  expressive  of  the  popular  indignation  ;  and 
the  Press,  almost  without  exception,  loudly  denounced 
the  proceedings  of  the  House  as  unconstitutional  arid 
oppressive.  On  February  18,  when  the  order  was  made 
for  the  committal  of  Thomas  Howard  the  younger,  and 
his  clerk,  Pearce,  Mr.  Leader,  the  member  for  Westmins- 
ter, "declared,  that  though  he  had  hitherto  voted  with 
Lord  John  on  all  these  questions  of  privilege,  yet,  he 
must  say  that  public  opinion  was  not  with  them  on  this 
occasion.  He  would  assert  that  one  could  not  meet 
with  any  person  outside  the  House,  except  the  hangers- 
on  of  the  Government,  who  did  not  say  that  the  House 
was  acting  tyrannically,  and  that  it  would  be  beaten  at 
last." 

It  was  evidently  high  time  that  the  supreme  authority 
of  the  Legislature  (i.  e.,  of  Queen,  Lords  and  Commons) 
should  interfere  to  put  an  end  to  a  state  of  things  so 
discreditable  and  vexatious.  Accordingly,  Lord  John 
Russell,  on  March  5,  obtained  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill, 
generally  known  as  "  the  Printed  Papers  Bill,"  the  object 
of  which  was  to  terminate  the  unfortunate  collision  of 
authorities  which  had  occurred,  by  providing,  that  in 
future  all  proceedings  against  persons  for  publication  of 
papers  printed  by  order  of  Parliament  should  be  stayed 
on  delivery  of  a  certificate  and  affidavit  that  such  publica- 
tion was  by  order  of  'either  House. 

The  motion  of  Lord  John  Russell  for  leave  to  bring 
in  this  bill  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  149  (203  to  54), 
numbers  sufficiently  indicating  how  glad  the  House  was 
to  escape  by  any  fair  compromise  from  a  position  which 
had  evidently  became  untenable. 

The  zealots  of  privilege,  indeed,  were  not  satisfied  ; 
but  led  by  the  Solicitor-General,  Sir  Thomas  Wilde — 
more  mindful  on  this  occasion  of  his  zeal  for  the  House 
than  of  his  allegiance  to  the  Government — contended 
that  by  invoking  the  assistance  of  the  whole  Legislature, 
the  House  in  effect  waived  the  assertion  of  its  own  privi- 
lege as  a  separate  branch  of  the  Legislature. 


1840.]  STOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    55 

"  The  Solicitor-General  earnestly  cautioned  the  House 
against  doing  anything  that  might  appear  to  admit  in 
any  degree  the  validity  of  the  judgment  of  the  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench.  By  passing  (he  said)  a  legislative 
measure  to  stop  future  proceedings  in  a  summary  man- 
ner, the  inference  would  be  that  the  House  admitted  it 
could  not  set  up  its  own  order  as  an  effectual  plea  in 
bar,  but  that  some  thing  further  was  necessary.  It  would 
also  be  said  that  they  would  not  have  left  the  judgment  of 
the  Court  of  Queen  s  Bencli  unimpugned,  as  they  had  done, 
liad  they  not  felt  that  they  could  not  successfully  have  dis- 
sented from  it.  His  objection  to  the  bill  was  that  wJien 
they  did  not  venture  to  assert  separately  and  independently 
their  own  privileges — when  they  had  not  expressed  the 
slightest  dissent  from  the  legal  authority  of  the  judgment 
pronounced  by  the  Court  of  Queen  s  Bench — they  in  effect 
affirmed  tliat  judgment  for  all  practical  purposes." 

The  reasonings  of  the  Solicitor-General  on  this  point 
seem  unanswerable ;  and  it  must  be  taken  that  the 
House,  by  invoking  the  authority  of  the  whole  Legisla- 
ture to  give  validity  to  the  plea  they  had  vainly  set  up 
in  the  action,  and  by  not  appealing  against  the  judgment 
of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  had,  in  effect,  admitted 
the  correctness  of  that  judgment  and  affirmed  the  great 
principle  on  which  it  was  founded,  viz.,  that  no  single 
branch  of  the  Legislature  can,  by  any  assertion  of  its 
alleged  privileges,  alter,  suspend,  or  supersede  any  known 
law  of  the  land,  or  bar  the  resort  of  any  Englishman  to 
any  remedy,  or  his  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  any  right, 
by  that  law  established. 

The  "  Printed  Papers  Bill  "  was  in  fact  a  compromise, 
leaving  the  authority  of  the  judgment  of  the  Queen'j 
Bench,  as  an  assertion  of  constitutional  principle,  not 
only  unshaken,  but  to  seme  extent  confirmed. 

The  Bill  having  passed  the  Commons  on  March  20, 
was  read  a  second  time  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  April 
6.  On  that  occasion  Lord  D-inman  delivered  the  speech 
from  which  extracts  have  already  been  m:;de,  and  the 
whole  of  which  will  be  found  printed  in  the  Appendix;1 
a  speech  of  a  very  high  order  of  excellence,  calm,  moder- 
ate, and  dignified  ;  giving  a  lucid  history  of  the  whole 

1  Appendix  IV. 


3  6  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1837— 

controversy  from  its  first  inception  ;  firmly  maintaining 
the  ground  taken  by  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  ;  but 
not  opposing  in  principle  the  Bill  before  the  House  as  a 
means  of  legislatively  putting  an  end  to  a  collision  of 
authorities  which  had  been  rather  forced  upon  him  than 
sought  by  him,  and  the  existence  of  which  no  one  had 
more  regretted  than  himself.  Notwithstanding  some 

o  o 

opposition  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  protested 
against  the  passing  of  any  measure  the  effect  of  which 
would  be  to  make  the  House  of  Commons  "  the  only 
authorized  libelersin  the  country,"  the  Bill  finally  passed 
the  Lords — with  some  additions  and  amendments,  prin- 
cipally suggested  by  Lord  Denman  himself — to  which 
the  Commons  agreed,  and  on  April  14  it  received  the 
Royal  assent,  and  took  its  place  in  the  Statute-book  as 
the  3  and  4  Vic.  c.  9,  with  the  title  of  "An  Act  to  give 
Summary  Protection  to  Persons  employed  in  the  Publi- 
cation of  Parliamentary  Papers." ' 

Thus  ended  this  memorable  controversy.  Mr.  Sheriff 
Evans,  who  had  been  released  provisionally  on  March  5 
(the  day  the  Bill  was  brought  into  the  House  of  Com- 
mons), was  finally  and  absolutely  discharged  on  April  14, 
the  day  it  received  the  Royal  assent;  and  on  the  same 
day  Thomas  Howard  the  younger,  and  his  clerk,  were 
let  out  of  Newgate;  where,  however,  Stockdale  and 
Thomas  Burton  Howard  were  further  detained  till 
May  15. 

The  firmness,  temperance,  and  dignity  displayed  by 
Lord  Denman  throughout  the  whole  of  this  protracted 
and  harassing  controversy,  were  deservedly  the  theme 
of  universal  praise,  and  his  name  became  endeared  to- 
the  people  of  England  as  that  of  a  bold  and  unshaken 

1  The  principal  provision  of  the  Act  is  the  first  section,  providing  that 
proceedings,  criminal  or  civil,  against  persons  for  publication  of  papers 
printed  by  order  of  Parliament,  shall  be  stayed  upon  delivery  of  a  certificate 
and  am.lavit  to  the  effjct  that  such  publication  is  by  order  of  either  House 
of  Parliament. 

A  concluding  clause  (the  fourth)  was  added  to  soothe  the  susceptibilities  of 
the  Lower  House,  viz.  "That  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  deemed,  or 
taken,  or  held,  or  construed,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  implication  or  other- 
wi  e,  to  affect  the  privileges  of  Parliament  in  any  manner  whatever."  This 
elaborate  verbiage  could  not  prevent  people  from  drawing  their  own  in- 
ferences, nor  conceal,  by  a  cloud  of  words,  the  substantial  defeat  of  the- 
House. 


1840.]  STOCKDALEv.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    57 

supporter   of  their   ancient    liberties    and    immemorial 
rights. 

He  has  preserved  among  his  papers  a  letter  by  an  un- 
known hand,  which,  by  the  indorsement,  "  to  be  taken  care 
of"  had  evidently,  gratified  him,  and  which,  as  a  fair  ex- 
pression of  the  popular  sentiment  of  the  time,  may  be 
inserted  here. 

"  To  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  Denman. 

"When  the  spirit  of  political  intrigue,  which  preem- 
inently distinguishes  the  present  era,  shall  have  passed 
away,  and  agitation  have  subsided  throughout  tht;  land, 
the  dispassionate  judgments  of  another  generation  will 
gratefully  appreciate  the  judicial  virtues  and  the  mag- 
nanimity of  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  Denman. 

"  It  is  not  fitting  in  me,  my  lord,  an  humble  member 
of  the  English  Bar,  to  offer  to  your  Lordship  the  spon- 
taneous tribute  of  admiration  which  is  participated  by  a 
large  portion  of  the  profession  ;  yet  the  homage  of  the 
citizen  is  not,  on  that  account,  the  less  due  to  the  bene- 
factor of  his  country,  when  he  predicts  of  your  Lordship 
that  so  long  as  Westminster  Hall  shall  endure,  so  long 
as  the  British  Constitution  shall  exist,  so  surely  shall 
that  which  your  Lordship  has  done  for  the  people  of 
England,  in  the  case  of  Stockdale  v.  Hansard,  stand  re- 
corded, a  glorious  memento,  in  the  brightest  page  of 
our  national  annals.  "ClVlLIS. 

"June  19,  1837." 

It  was  not  only  the  popular  sentiment,  however, 
which,  revering  in  Lord  Denman  the  fearless  and  upright 
magistrate,  ranged  itself  in  favor  of  the  line  taken  by 
the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  ;  but  the  learned  opinion 
also  of  Westminster  Hall  was  entirely  in  favor  of  the 
correctness,  in  point  of  law,  of  the  judgment  in  Stockdale 
v.  Hansard. 

This  appears  from  a  discussion  which  arose  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  on  March  28,  1843,  regarding  a  speech 
then  recently  delivered  by  Sir  Tnomas  Wilde  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  which,  as  incorrectly  reported, 
attributed  to  Lord  Denman  an  expression  of  opinion  in 
the  course  of  the  judgment  in  Stockdale  v.  Hansard, 


58  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1837— 

which  in  point  of  fact  he  had  never  uttered.  This  led 
to  a  declaration  on  the  part  of  Lord  Den  man  of  his  be- 
ing prepared  to  abide  by  every  word  of  that  judgment 
as  correctly  given  in  the  authorized  legal  reports  ;  to  a 
re-affirmation  of  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  judg- 
ment, which,  never  having  been  appealed  against,  must 
be  taken  as  correct  in  law  ;  and  to  a  vindication  of  the 
judges  who  had  taken  part  in  it  from  the  disparagement 
[recently  put  forth  by  Lord  Campbell  in  his  "  Lives  of 
the  Chief  Justices"]  of  being  "  mere  lawyers."1 

This  called  up  Lord  Campbell,  who  declared  it  to  be 
his  firm  opinion — 1st,  that  the  judgment  of  the  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench  was  entirely  erroneous,  and  had  been  at 
once  condemned  by  Westminster  Hall:  2ndly,  ''that 
the  Printed  Papers  Publication  Act  amounted  to  a  Par- 
liament arv  reversal  of  the  judgment,  inasmuch  as  the 
preamble  of  that  Act  distinctly  recognized  it  to  be 
essentially  necessary  to  the  due  discharge  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  two  Houses  that  they  should  have  the  power 
of  publishing  whatever  part  of  their  proceedings  they 
might  deem  requisite  for  the  information  of  the  public." 

On  both  points  Lord  Campbell  received  an  emphatic 
and  decisive  refutation. 

As  to  the  opinion  of  Westminster  Hall,  Lord  Abinger 
(Sir  James  Scarlett) — certainly  no  partial  witness  in 
Denman's  favor — said,  "  As  far  as  I  could  learn  the 
opinion  of  Westminster  Hall  on  the  subject  (and  Scar- 
lett, in  1839,  when  the  judgment  was  delivered,  was  the 
first  man  in  the  profession),  I  must  say  that  the  general 
feeling  there  coincided  with  what  I  believe  to  have  been 
the  universal  feeling  elsewhere  "  (viz.,  in  favor  of  the 
judgment).  Lord  Abinger  reminded  Lord  Campbell 
that  '•  at  the  time  the  judgment  was  pronounced,  he 
[Lord  Campbell]  was  not  in  a  position  to  ascertain  truly 
what  the  real  opinions  of  the  bar  were.  He  then  held  a 
high  and  influential  situation  under  the  Government  [as 
Attorney-General],  and  was  surrounded  by  persons  who 
were  not  likely  to  differ  from  him  in  opinion."" 

As  to  the  alleged  Parliamentary  reversal  of  the 
judgment,  by  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  3  &  4  Vic.  c.  9, 

1  Hansard,  Par!.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixvi.  p.  1 100  et  seq. 
3  Hansard,  i'arl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixvi.  p.  1113. 


1840.]  S7OCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.   59 

Lord  Denman  (who.  in  giving  judgment  in  Stockdale  v. 
Hansard,  had,  as  already  pointed  out,  distinctly  dis- 
claimed expressing  any  opinion  on  the  expediency  or 
otherwise  of  altering  the  law  as  it  then  stood,  although 
intimating  that  it  was  susceptible  of  improvement)  sup- 
plied the  following  short  and  conclusive  answer: — 

"As  a  Judge,  I  denied  that  that  privilege  of  publica- 
tion existed  before,  to  the  injury  of  individuals;  as  a 
Legislator  I  concurred  in  its  being  permitted  for  tlie 
future.  As  a  Judge  I  could  only  lay  down  the  law  as 
I  found  it ;  as  a  Member  of  Parliament  I  agreed  to  a 
change  in  the  law  for  the  public  advantage." 

As  to  the  point  of  "  Parliamentary  reversal"  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  also,  who  had,  not  without  difficulty,  con- 
sented to  the  passing  of  the  Act  on  Printed  Papers, 
spoke  as  follows  : — 

"The  noble  and  learned  lord  [Lord  Campbell]  says 
that  Act  was  a  contradiction  of  the  judgment  of  the 
Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  and  is  wholly  inconsistent  with 
it.  I  wish  just  to  state  what  passed  in  this  House  when 
that  act  was  under  your  lordship's  consideration — 
namely,  that  it  was  the  noble  and  learned  lord,  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Queen's  Bench,  who  himself  supported  the 
measure  and  prevailed  on  your  lordships  to  adopt  it. 
Answering  only  for  myself,  at  least,  I  can  say  that /tew 
persuaded  to  vote  for  that  measure  entirely  in  consequence 
of  the  spcfch  of  the  noble  and  learned  lord,  the  CJiief 
Justice,  who,  I  take  it,  would  not  have  urged  the  Bill  on 
the  adoption  of  the  House  if  it  were  so  entirely  incon- 
sistent, as  the  noble  and  learned  lord  [Lord  Campbell] 
lias  represented  it  to  be,  with  the  judgment  of  the  Court 
of  Queen's  Bench." 

Very  few,  if  any,  letters  are  to  be  found  among  Lord 
Denman's  papers  bearing  directly  upon  the  great  contro- 
versy raised  by  Stockdale  v.  Hansard. 

The  two  following,  however,  which  have  an  indirect 
relation  to  it,  may  conveniently  be  inserted  here. 

In  1838  the  venerable  Lord  Commissioner  Adam  had 
written  Denman  a  letter  (not  preserved)  in  praise  of  his 
constitutional  exertions,  and  inclosing  some  papers  in 
reference  to  what  he  himself  had  done  in  1793,  when  he 
had  brought  before  Parliament  the  illegal  sentence  of  the 


60  LIFE    OF    LORD     DENMAN.         [1837— 

Scotch  Court  of  Judiciary  in  the  case  of  Muir,  and 
had  been  defeated  by  171  to  31.  The  sentence  in 
Muir's  case  was  flagrant  and  monstrously  illegal ;  he 
had  been  convicted  of  sedition  {for  associating  to  obtain 
a  Reform  in  Parliament  /)  and  sentenced  to  fourteen 
years'  transportation,  suck  punishment  for  such  offense 
being  totally  unknown  to  the  law  !  !  Lord  Commissioner 
Adam  had  sent  these  papers  to  Denman  as  showing  how, 
in  periods  of  political  excitement,  the  sense  of  justice 
can  be  overcome  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  the  spirit 
of  party. 

Denman's  reply  was  as  follows  : 

.  "  Middleton  :  August  27,  1838. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — One  of  the  first  occupations  of  my 
leisure  has  been  the  perusal  of  the  valuable  documents 
which  you  have  been  so  good  as  to  transmit  to  me.  I 
beg  you  to  accept  my  thanks,  and  to  believe  that  few 
persons  could  be  more  gratified  by  any  proof  of  your  re- 
gard or  more  interested  in  the  contents  of  the  papers. 

"  It  has  ever  been  my  opinion  that  the  resistance 
made  by  Mr.  Fox  and  his  friends  to  the  inroads  of  ar- 
bitrary power  preserved  the  free  Constitution  of  this 
country  from  the  most  imminent  danger,  and  that  not 
one  of  their  efforts  is  entitled  to  more  praise  and  grati- 
tude than  your  able  vindication  of  the  law  against  the 
judicial  outrage  committed  on  the  persons  of  Mr.  Muir 
and  his  fellow-sufferers.  It  seems  now  astonishing  that 
the  torrent  of  power  and  party  spirit  could  sweep  away 
the  safeguards  of  justice  when  so  clearly  pointed  out ; 
but  you  fixed  the  landmark  while  the  storm  was  raging, 
and  it  still  remains,  now  that  the  waters  have  subsided, 
for  the  protective  guidance  of  posterity, 

"  The  result  must  be  delightful  to  your  feelings.  There 
can  be  no  higher  reward  tor  a  public  man  than  to  wit- 
ness the  triumph  of  those  just  principles  which  he  had 
dared  to  assert  under  every  discouragement.  That  you, 
my  dear  lord,  may  yet  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  a 
long  series  of  these  bloodless  victories  in  the  cause  of 
freedom  and  humanity,  is  my  earnest  hope. 

"  Your  lordship's  obliged  and  faithful  servant. 

"  DENMAN." 

The  other  letter  was  written  to  the  Duke  of  Welling- 


1840.]  STOCKDALE  v.  HANSARD— PRIVILEGE.    61 

ton,  just  before  the  Privilege  controversy  was  terminated 
by  the  passing  of  the  Printed  Papers  Act.  The  Duke  had 
taken  throughout  a  strong  interest  in  the  discussion, 
and  had  fully  supported  the  views  enounced  by  Lord 
Denman.  Denman  had  sent  the  Duke  a  copy  of  his 
own  republication  of  Lord  Holt's  judgment  in  the  case 
of  Ashby  v.  White,  and  of  John  Paty  and  others  ;  and 
the  Duke  had  lent  Denman  the  pamphlet  referred  to 
in  the  following  letter.  The  tone  of  respectful  homage 
which  pervades  Denman's  communication  is  the  sincere 
expression  of  his  real  sentiments  for  the  great  Captain 
to  whom,  personally,  he  always  felt  he  had  been  under 
deep  obligation,  for  procuring  him  the  first  great  and  in- 
dispensable step  in  his  professional  advancement — the 
rank  of  King's  Counsel. 

"  Warwick  :  March  29,  1840. 

"  My  dear  Lord  Duke, — I  have  the  honor  to  return, 
with  many  thanks,  the  volume  which  you  were  so  kind 
as  to  lend  me.  The  account  of  what  occurred  in  Parlia- 
ment and  the  Queen's  Bench  with  reference  to  the  Five 
Men  of  Aylesbury,  is  very  well  drawn  up:  yet,  if  your 
Grace  could  find  time  to  read  the  judgment  in  Paty's 
case,  as  reported  in  the  little  publication  I  sent,  I  think 
you  will  find  the  principles  and  reasonings  both  more 
eloquently  stated  and  more  fully  developed. 

"The  value  stamped  by  your  Grace's  approbation  on 
the  narrative  of  the  Battle  of  Blenheim  in  the  same 
volume  has  induced  me  to  devote  some  short  intervals 
of  leisure  to  the  perusal  of  it. 

"  Both  these  passages  in  our  history  appears  to  me  ex- 
tremely interesting,  as  well  from  the  nature  of  the  trans- 
actions as  from  their  resemblance  to  events  in  our  own 
times. 

"  The  author's  style  rises  with  his  subject.  The  Duke 
of  Maryborough  is  brought  upon  the  scene  with  great 
spirit :  '  a  person  whom  courage,  experience,  vigilance, 
and  .conduct  recommended  for  a  captain-general,  and 
whom  wisdom,  penetration,  temper,  and  affability  fitted 
for  a  plenipotentiary.' 

"  Few  will  read  this  passage  without  finding  a  parallel 
which  is  only  not  exact,  because  still  higher  qualities 
ought  to  be  added  to  complete  the  likeness. 


62  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1840. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  successor  of  Lord  Holt  can 
enter  into  no  competition  with  him,  except,  perhaps,  on 
the  score  of  good  intentions. 

"  I  am  conscious  of  some  presumption  in  placing  my- 
self, on  any  terms,  in  company  with  such  illustrious 
names:  but  the  observation  has  forced  itself  upon  me. 

"  In  common  with  all  Englishmen,  I  claim  an  interest 
in  your  Grace's  reputation,  and  I  am  proud  to  remember 
that  you  have  some  interest  in  mine,  as  being,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  responsible  for  my  promotion  to  an  office 
that  I  never  could  have  attained  without  the  rank  pre- 
viously procured  for  me  by  your  kindness  and  gen- 
erosity. 

"  Permit  me,  my  Lord,  to  express  my  hope  that  the 
Bill  relating  to  Printed  Papers  may  lead  to  the  satisfac- 
tory adjustment  of  painful  differences,  though  it  will 
probably  require  modification  and  curtailment. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be 
"  Your  Grace's  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

"  DENMAN." 

In  addition  to  the  many  publications  and  documents 
already  referred  to  in  the  present  chapter,  a  paper  may 
be  mentioned  which  Lord  Denman  himself  communi- 
cated on  this  great  question  to  The  Quarterly  Review? 
It  is  not,  however,  necessary  to  do  more  than  thus  refer 
to  it,  for,  though  able  and  interesting,  it  adds  nothing  to 
the  elucidation  the  subject  had  elsewhere  received  from 
his  more  authoritative  deliverances— his  judgments  in 
the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  and  his  speeches  in  the 
Upper  House  of  Parliament ;  while,  from  the  easy  ac- 
cessibility of  the  volume  in  which  it  is  contained,  it  has 
not  been  thought  necessary  to  reprint  it  in-the  Appendix. 
1  Vol.  Ixv.,  No.  for  March  1840,  Article  ix. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

SOCIAL  AND  FAMILY  LIFE— FIRST  SLAVE-TRADE   SPEECH 
IN   HOUSE   OF   LORDS. 

1837  TO  1841.     JET.  58  TO  62. 

WITH  a  view  of  presenting  a  continuous  account 
of  the  proceedings  and  discussions  connected 
with  and  arising  out  of  the  great  case  of  Stock- 
dale  v.  Hansard,  the  course  of  the  narrative  has  been 
suspended,  and  the  order  of  time  departed  from. 

The  first  trial  of  Stockdale  v.  Hansard  took  place,  it 
will  be  recollected,  in  February,  1837;  and  the  prepara- 
tion, later  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  of  his  pamphlet 
commenting  on  the  resolution  of  the  Commons  Commit- 
tee, coupled  with  the  deep  and  extended  researches  into 
the  Law  of  Privilege,  to  which,  as  his  papers  prove,  he 
about  this  period  devoted  himself,  sufficiently  occupied 
the  greater  portion  of  the  time  which  the  Chief  Justice 
could  spare  from  his  judicial  functions. 

On  June  20,  1837,  William  IV.  died,  and  Her  present 
Majesty  succeeded  to  the  Throne. 

In  the  session  that  preceded  the  consequent  dissolu- 
tion of  Parliament,  Denman  had  the  high  satisfaction  of 
at  length  carrying  through  the  House  of  Lords  two  bills, 
one  finally  abolishing  death  punishment  in  all  cases  of 
forgery,  and  the  other  putting  an  end  to  it  in  a  great 
variety  of  other  cases,  where,  though  in  fact  capital  pun- 
ishment was  hardly  ever,  if  ever  inflicted,  the  power  of 
awarding  it  was,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  law,  still  suffered 
to  remain.1 

In  the  late  autumn  session  which  followed  the  dissolu- 

1  These  two  Bills  received  the  Royal  assent,  one  on  July  IT,  the  other  rn 
July  17,  1837.  See  Hansard.  P.irl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xxxviii.  ]  p. 
1773-1859-1907-8;  the  Act  abolishing  Death  Punishment  for  Furgery  is 
I  Vic.  c.'84. 


64  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1837— 

tion — on  December  3,  1837, — the  Chief  Justice  lent  cor- 
dial and  efficient  support  to  the  Bill  for  the  Abolition  of 
Arrest  on  Mesne  Process,  the  second  reading  of  which 
was  on  that  day  moved  by  Lord  Cottenham.1 

Among  the  few  letters  of  this  year  which  have  been 
preserved,  is  the  following,  written  on  August  4,  for  the 
amusement  of  his  daughters,  and  giving  an  account  of  a 
dinner-party  at  Buckingham  Palace,  the  first,  apparently, 
which  the  Chief  Justice  had  attended  since  the  young 
Queen's  accession.3 

"  Now  for  a  description  of  the  Queen's  dinner.  The 
dinner  was  at  a  quarter-past  seven,  at  Buckingham 
Palace,  and  I  was  there  within  ten  minutes  after  that 
time.3  The  Palace  has  been  much  maligned,  and  is 
really  much  handsomer  than  I  expected.  The  hall  and 
staircase  are  magnificent.  A  splendid  room  hung  with 
green  silk  first  receives  you,  then  a  round  room  with  a 
vaulted  roof,  where  several  were  assembled,  and  among 
the  rest  Tricoupi.  In  about  five  minutes  folding  doors 
to  the  right  were  thrown  open,  and  the  Queen  came 
tripping  in,  with  the  Duchess  of  Kent  and  all  her  ladies. 
A  general  bow  and  some  particular  addresses,  very  short, 
and  interrupted  by  '  God  save  the  Queen,'  softly  and 
charmingly  played  by  the  Coldstream  band.  It  was 
kindly  received,  for  it  meant  dinner.  She  was  led  in  by 
some  foreign  nobleman,  and  so  in  order.  I  am  sorry  I 
can  not  say  who  was  led  in  by  me.  We  passed  through 
a  large  room — remarkably  rich  with  gilding  and  yellow 
furniture,  but  deformed  with  numerous  pillars  of  mock 
marble,  of  a  deep  raspberry-cream  color,  with  which  the 
gilded  capitals  harmonized  very  ill — into  the  dining- 
room.  Candles  were  lighted,  but  we  had  sufficient  day- 
light to  show  the  fine  trees  in  the  garden,  and  might 
have  been,  as  the  Cockneys  say,  a  hundred  miles  from 
London.  I  was  seating  myself  at  one  end  of  the  table, 
when  Colonel  Cavendish  told  me  that  place  belonged  to 
him  as  equerry,  and  so  I  was  divorced  from  my  anony- 

1  Hansard,  Pad.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xxxix.  pp.  592-625.  This  Bill 
received  the  Royal  assent  on  August  16,  1838,  and  is  i  &  2  Vic.  c.  no. 

*  The  letter  was  addressed  to  his  third  daughter,  Fanny,  now  the  Hon. 
Lady  Baynes. 

3  Lord  Denham  had  come  up  from  Croydon,  where  he  was  presiding  on 
the  Home  Circuit. 


1841.]          SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  65 

mous  partner.  This  threvy  me  next  to  Miss  Spring  Rice 
and  mother,  and  another  maid  of  honor  whom  I  did  not 
know,  and  to  the  same  side  of  the  table  with  Her 
Majesty,  so  that  I  could  see  but  little  of  her. 

"The  party  was,  I  think,  twenty-six  in  number.  The 
conversation  was  confined  to  small  knots,  but  was  lively 
and  incessant,  though  carried  on  in  subdued  tones.  It 
was  very  different  from  the  kingly  table  I  remember, 
where  the  Royal  Host  used  to  drink  to  the  general 
health  of  the  whole  table,  and  singly  with  most  of  his 
company,  and  more  than  once.  Shortly  after  dinner, 
while  Miss  Spring  Rice  was  harrowing  my  feelings  with 
the  story  of  Norma,  there  was  a  little  stir,  and  Colonel 
Cavendish  called  me  by  name  out  of  my  reverie.  All 
stood  and  drank  the  Queen's  health  ;  half  an  hour  then 
passed  in  conversation,  and  after  a  second  ladyless  half 
hour,  we  returned  through  the  gorgeous  apartment  to 
the  vaulted  gathering-room,  the  folding-doors  of  which 
opened  into  a  sober  drawing-room,  and  others  into  the 
gallery  of  Flemish  pictures — a  most  noble  collection. 
The  band  was  placed  at  the  end  of  this  gallery,  and  it 
played  at  dinner,  and  at  intervals  throughout  the  even- 
ing, very  softly  and  sweetly. 

"  In  the  drawing-room  whist  was  played  at  one  table. 
Her  Majesty  was  seated  on  a  sofa  between  the  Marchion- 
ess of  Abercorn  and  Madame  Tricoupi.  Her  Majesty  de- 
sired chairs  to  be  placed,  and  that  all  of  us  should  sit  down, 
so  the  conversation  went  on  till  about  eleven,  when  the 
same  national  air  again  struck  up,  and  the  party  broke  up. 

"  Now  I  come  to  the  important  part  of  my  descrip- 
tion ;  but,  though  the  general  mourning  is  over,  it  was 
still  court  mourning.  The  Queen  wore  all  black,  with  a 
train,  her  hair  as  usual,  with  thin  rings  of  curls  hardly 
larger  than  a  shilling  on  the  cheeks — that  is  one  just 
below  each  ear:  a  little  flowing  black  gauze  was  fastened 
in  the  hair  behind ;  but  I  don't  know  what  became  of 
it,  I  rather  suspect  it  was  fastened  somewhere  about 
half-way  down  her  back.  The  Queen  is  exactly  the 
height  of  Madame  Tricoupi,  but  looks  much  shorter 
when  sitting.  No  human  countenance  was  ever  more 
expressive  of  happiness  and  good-nature;  she  had  some- 
thing to  say  to  everybody,  and  asked  me  about  your 
«.— 5 


66  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1837— 

mother  and  about  the  circuit ;  not  the  smallest  con- 
straint with  anyone  ;  on  retiring  she  shook  hands  with 
several  of  the  ladies,  and  seemed  to  talk  very  confiden- 
tially with  some.  I  heard  her  ask  with  much  interest, 
'  Is  it  a  nice  child?'  Her  Majesty  is  not  yet  provided 
with  a  horse,  so  if  you  hear  of  anything  very  perfect  for 
spirit  and  docility,  you  may  as  well  make  a  purchase  of 
it  on  speculation  :  she  is  determined  to  have  a  large 
horse,  4  none  of  your  cobs.'  ' 

On  October  20,  1837,  he  writes  from  Middleton  to 
Mrs.  Baillie: 

"The  extraordinary  beauty  of  this  morning  has 
tempted  me  to  a  short  walk  before  commencing  my 
daily  occupation  of  writing  letters.  The  glass  is  at  58° 
in  the  shade.  I  sincerely  wish  you  could  enjoy  our 
quiet,  dewy  scene,  which  promises  a  whole  day  equally 
fine  ;  but  we  will  hope  for  similar  weather  next  year. 
My  former  reading  had  thrown  me  on  '  Mackintosh's 
Life,'  '  which  I  have  read  for  the  second  time  with 
increasing  pleasure."  In  a  subsequent  letter  he  tells  his 
sister:  '•  I  am  deep  in  Madame  de  Sevigne's  letters, 
which  I  never  read  before,  and  find  equal  to  all  their 
panegyrics."8 

The  following  letter  to  Coleridge  was  written  while 
Denman  was  presiding  at  the  London  sittings  after 
Michaelmas  Term  of  this  year,  immediately  on  receipt 
of  an  engraved  likeness  of  his  brother  Judge,  accompa- 
nied by  a  note,  in  which  Coleridge  begs  his  acceptance 
of  it  "  in  token  of  the  great  pleasure  I  have  in  serving 
in  the  same  Court  with  and  under  you,  and  of  my  sense 
of  your  uniform  kindness  to  me." 

"  December  15,  1837. 

"  Dear  Coleridge, — Under  any  circumstances  I  must 
place  a  high  value  on  an  excellent  likeness  of  you  ;  but 
as  a  present  from  you,  and  accompanied  by  suck  a  letter, 
it  is  inestimable. 

"  I  was  going  to  write  to  you  about  Awdry's  letter,* 

1  First  published  in  1835. 

1  Denman  had  no  doubt  been  induced  to  set  himself  to  the  perusal  of  the 
Sevigne  letters  by  the  enthusiastic  eulogies  of  Mackintosh,  who,  in  his 
"Memoirs,"  shows  himself  almost  as  much  in  love  with  the  "charming 
woman"  as  Horace  Walpole  in  his  "  Letters." 

*  Sir  John   Awdry,  born  1795  ;  Judge  and  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 


i84i.j          SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  67 

and  express  the  hope  that  in  his  wide  separation  from 
us,  he  may  represent  and  anticipate  the  judgment  of 
posterity.  To  my  posterity,  at  least,  your  portrait  and 
letter  shall  descend. 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  ever  exchanged  a  word  with 
your  correspondent  (Awdry),  and  of  course  am  deiighted 
with  the  manner  in  which  he  speaks  of  me.  I  am  the 
less  surprised  at  it  because  I  fancy  there  is  discoverable 
in  his  letter  a  strong  sympathy  between  his  habits  of 
thinking  and  mine.  Wordsworth's  stanza,  which  he 
resents,  made  me  so  sore,  five-and-thirty  years  ago,  that 
I  followed  out  his  attack  on  professions  by  a  parody  run- 
ning through  all  walks  of  life.1 

*'  His  (Awdry's)  refutation  of  the  sarcasm  by  referring 
to  CressweH's"  looks,  has  something  whimsical  in  it, 
from  a  personal  anecdote  of  what  occurred  on  a  trial 
before  Holland  at  Carlisle,  when  I  went  the  Northern 
Circuit  with  him  in  1833.  Lord  Lonsdale  prosecuted 
for  libel,  in  consequence  of  a  violent  invective  against 
himself  in  respect  to  the  St.  Bee's  charity.  Wordsworth, 
as  Commissioner  of  Stamps,  attended  in  court  to  prove 
the  publisher's  affidavit,  and  sat  to  the  end  of  the  trial. 
In  his  presence,  Cresswell,  for  the  defendant,  read  an 
eloquent  passage  from  Wordsworth's  pamphlet  on  the 
Convention  of  Cintra,  stating  as  the  most  disgusting 
proof  of  moral  degradation  in  any  people,  that  its  nobles 
abuse  the  charitable  funds  intrusted  to  their  manage- 
ment. And  this  very  pamphlet  was  understood  to  have 
been  bought  up  by  Lord  Lonsdale  to  smooth  the  way 
to  Wordsworth's  appointment  to  that  very  office  he 
now  holds. 

"  At  this  moment  Creswell  and  Thesiger  are  engaged 
before  me,  fighting  a  case  on  a  mercantile  contract,  very 
well  on  both  sides.  I  hope  this  prose  to  you  has  not 

Court  of    Bombay  from  1830  to  1842  ;  first  class  in  Classics  at  Oxford  in 
1816,  and  Fellow  of  Oriel. 

1  The  stanza  is  no  doubt  that  occurring  in  Wordsworth's  poem,  "  A  Poet's 
Epitaph  " — 

"  A  lawyer  art  thou  ? — draw  not  nigh  ; 
Go,  carry  to  some  fitter  place 
The  keenness  of  that  practiced  eye, 
The  hardness  of  that  sallow  face." 

1  The  late  Mr.  Justice  Cresswell,  before  his  promotion  to  the  Bench,  was 
leader  of  the  Northern  Circuit. 


68  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1837— 

diverted  my  attention  from  Thesiger's  argument,  which 
now  draws  to  a  close. 

"  I  can  not  conclude  my  acknowledgments  without  as- 
suring you  how  sensible  I  am  of  the  value  of  your  co- 
operation as  a  judge,  and  of  that  personal  friendship 
which  I  most  sincerely  return. 

"  Ever,  my  dear  Coleridge, 

"  Yours, 
"  DENMAN." 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1838,  Denman  was  made 
very  happy  by  the  union  of  his  second  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth, with  his  old  friend  and  schoolfellow,  Francis  Hodg- 
son, who  had  for  some  years  been  Vicar  of  Bakewell,  the 
little  Derbyshire  town  where  Denman's  grandfather  had 
lived  and  where  his  father  was  born.  The  near  neighbor- 
hood of  Bakewell  to  Stony  Middleton  had  led,  since  1830, 
to  a  frequent  intercourse  between  the  Vicar  and  the  Den- 
man family.  Hodgson,  whose  first  wife  had  died  some 
years  before  his  second  marriage  with  Miss  Denman,' 
had,  since  1836,  become  Archdeacon  of  Derbyshire  and 
Vicar  of  Edensor,  close  to  Chatsworth  (in  addition  to 
Bakewell).  In  1840,  as  will  be  afterwards  seen,  he  was 
elected  Provost  of  Eton,  an  appointment  worth  from 
two  to  three  thousand  a  year,  on  obtaining  which  he  re- 
signed his  former  preferments. 

In  addition  to  very  considerable  classical  and  literary 
attainments,2  Francis  Hodgson  was  a  most  charming 
person  in  society,  and  an  admirable  talker.  He  was  well 
received  in  the  highest  circles,  and  an  especial  favorite 
with  the  then  Duke  of  Devonshire  (the  sixth  duke),  so 
long  and  so  well  known  as  a  leader  in  the  world  of 
fashion. 

In  the  spring  of  1838  Hodgson  was  staying  in  London 
at  Devonshire  House,  when  he  received  from  his  old 

1  Hodgson's  first  wife  (nde  Tayleur)  was  a  graceful  and  accomplished  per- 
son. This  was  the  lady  whom  Monre  saw  when  he  visited  Bakewell,  in 
1828,  to  learn  all  that  Hodgson  could  tell  him  about  his  earlier  intimacy 
with  Byron — a  visit  of  which  he  has  given  a  pleasant  account  in  his  Diary 
under  the  dates  of  the  25th,  26th.  27th,  and  28th  of  January,  1828. 

*  In  addition  to  his  excellent  translation  of  Juvenal,  Hodgson  published, 
from  time  to  time,  a  good  deal  of  verse,  of  which  a  poem  called  "  The 
Leaves  of  Laurel  "  was  probably  the  best  known.  His  early  intimacy  with 
Byron  has  elsewhere  been  alluded  to  ;  he  was  also  much  liked  and  appreci- 
ated by  Moore. 


i84i.J          SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  69 

friend  a  letter  written  on  March  21,  from  Exeter,  on  the 
Western  Circuit,  where  the  Chief  Justice  was  then  pre- 
siding. It  was  evidently  written,  as  the  following  extract 
shows,  after  having  received  from  Hodgson  an  intima- 
tion of  the  state  of  his  affections. 

"  You  can  not  easily  conceive  the  incessant  occupation 
brought  upon  me  by  the  present  assizes;  my  only  time 
for  writing  is  in  Court,  where  I  am  afraid,  during  the 
long,  long  speeches,  of  losing  something  that  ought  to 
affect  the  decision.  I  seize  a  few  moments,  therefore, 
from  needful  repose,  to  say  how  much  I  am  pleased  with 
the  interest  my  dear  daughter  has  excited  in  you,  and 
with  the  prospect  of  that  closer  intimacy  which  our  new 
relation  must  produce.  I  can  not  doubt  that  a  union 
formed  so  entirely  on  perfect  regard  and  esteem  on  both 
sides  will  be  happy,  and  one  of  the  greatest  enjoyments 
of  my  life  will  be  to  witness  and  promote  your  comfort. 
I  am  literally  almost  dropping  out  of  my  chair,  and 
must  resume  work  at  an  early  hour  to-morrow.  Good 
night,  and  many  happy  years  to  you." 

In  the  course  of  a  letter  written  on  March  26,  to  his 
daughter  Elizabeth,  from  Launceston,  on  the  same  cir- 
cuit, he  thus  refers  to  the  marriage,  which,  by  that  time,  it 
seems,  had  been  already  arranged. 

"  The  more  I  think  of  your  prospects  the  better  I 
like  them.  Nothing  can  promise  so  fairly  to  exalt  the 
character  and  advance  the  happiness  of  a  wife  as  such 
a  temper  and  conversation,  such  manners,  talents,  and 
principles." 

On  May  24,  1838,  while  presiding  at  the  sittings 
either  at  Westminster  or  Guildhall,'  he  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing lively  and  entertaining  letter  to  the  newly- 
married  couple,  who  were  just  completing  their  honey- 
moon at  Hardwicke  Hall,  one  of  the  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire's rural  palaces  in  Derbyshire. 

"  My  dear  Children,2 — You  must,  I  fear,  have  thought 
mean  unnatural  parent;  but  you,  my  dear  Elizabeth, 
are  well  acquainted  with  the  complete  absorption  of  my 

1  Most  probably  at  Guildhall,  on  the  first  day  of  the  London  sittings  in 
Trinity  Term,  which  had  begun  on  May  22. 

*  This  paternal  style  of  address  to  a  son-in-law  nearly  his  own  age  wa» 
of  course  intended  to  raise  a  laugh. 


70  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1837— 

whole  being  in  sittings  and  visitings,  so  that  nothing 
gives  me  the  opportunity  of  putting  pen  to  paper  except 
a  long  consultation  in  the  jury-box  (which  now  happens), 
or  a  very  long  speech  about  nothing.  I  have  been  truly 
happy  to  hear  of  your  enjoyment  at  Hardwicke,  and 
delight  in  thinking  that  you  will  find  Middleton  not 
uncomfortable,  and  I  trust,  in  high  beauty.  We  have 
been  very  gay;  on  Monday,  Lord  Clarendon1  gave  a 
particularly  pleasant  party — Lords  Grey  and  Holland, 
and  several  others.  Lord  Grey  not  in  absolute  good 
humor  with  his  old  friends ;  a  little  sore  on  many  points  ; 
inclined  to  admire  Sir  Robert  Peel's  speech  at  Merchant 
Tailors'  Hall;2  not  pleased  with  Brougham's  last  politi- 
cal article  in  the  EdinburgJi,  The  general  asperities  not 
softened  by  his  being  seated  next  to  Lady  Clarendon, 
who  required  him  to  carve  all  the  dishes,  especially  a 
roast  pig!3  Lord  Holland,  more  amiable,  good-hu- 
mored, and  entertaining  than  I  ever  saw  even  him 
before — quite  aware  of  Lord  Grey's  infirmity,  but  only 
amused  by  it.  Both  deep  in  Wilberforce's  biography, 
and  agreed  that  it  raised  him  in  their  estimation.  Hol- 
land said  in  addition  (but  with  some  nervousness  as  to 
how  it  would  be  received)  that  the  work  also  raised  Pitt 
in  his  opinion.  This  was  controverted,  but  not  ungrace- 
fully. Grey  condemned  the  '  Athenian  Captive.'4  He 
would  not  speak  of  it.  Grey  said  he  could  not  read 
'  Pickwick.'  Holland  spoke  of  it  with  discriminating 
discernment,  but  -ntioned  Boz's  other  book, '  Oliver 
Twist,'  almost  witn  tears.  When  Grey  offered  to  help 
him  to  pig,  he  declined  it  hastily,  and  gave  me  the  most 
comical  look,  as  though  he  should  have  come  between 
the  lion  and  his  wrath.  Rogers  mentioned  that  Fox 
used  to  be  very  angry  with  those  who  questioned  Wil- 
berforce's sincerity  about  slavery.  When,  however, 
some  one  said  to  Fox,  '  Suppose  Wilberforce  had  to 
choose  between  continuing  slavery  and  turning  Pitt  out 
of  power.'  '  Ah,'  said  Fox,  '  that  would  have  been  a 

1  The  third  Lord  Clarendon,  grandfather  of  the  present  Earl. 
"On  May  u. 

3  An  infliction   enough  to  have  soured  most  tempers.     The  dinner  a  la 
Uussehad  not  then  been  invented. 

4  Talfourd's  play,  then  recently  brought  out. 


1841.]  SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  71 

hard  choice  for  him.  I  am  afraid  he  would  have  given 
the  preference  to  Barabbas.' 

"  We  had  yesterday  a  very  agreeable  pretentionless 
dinner  at  home.  Miss  Pierce,1  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Merrivale, 
Charles  Wright,  &c.  We  were  also  gladdened  by  a  let- 
ter from  Cadiz,  written  by  the  commander-in-chief  there.' 

"  Our  fair  ones  at  this  moment  are  all  doing  honor  to 
the  [Queen's]  birthday.  I  am  showing  respect  for  my 
Sovereign  by  administering  justice  to  her  subjects.  But 
they  are  a  queer  set.  We  have  a  horse  cause,  with  many 
interesting  traits  of  low  life,  a  la  Pickwick  and  Nickleby. 
A  widow,  in  crape,  of  an  hostler,  who  died  last  Decem- 
ber in  a  hospital ;  she  said, 'We  did  not  live  very  well 
together,  but  thank  God  we  died  very  good  friends.'  It 
seems  that  she  set  out  to  go  to  see  him,  and  on  the  way 
got  so  tipsy  that  she  fell  and  cut  her  head,  and  became 
a  patient  in  the  same  hospital  for  a  fortnight,  during 
which  he  died."3 

It  should  have  been,  perhaps,  mentioned,  in  connection 
with  the  Western  Spring  Assizes  of  1838,  that  this  was 
the  first  occasion  on  which  Denman,  as  one  of  Her 
Majesty's  Judges,  was  entertained  by  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington at  Strathfieldsaye — a  visit  which  was  afterwards 
frequently  repeated.  On  this  occasion,  as  usual,  a  large 
party  of  county  magnates  were  invited  to  meet  the 
Judges,  amongst  whom  the  present  Lord  Denman 
(who  accompanied  his  father)  recollects  Lord  Eversley, 
Assheton  Smith,  the  famous  master  of  hounds  (an  old 
Eton  schoolfellow  of  Denman's),  Mr.  Darby  Griffiths, 
Mr.  Pigott  (brother  of  the  present  Baron  of  the  Ex- 
chequer), and  many  others.  Denman's  sister  (Lady 
Croft)  came  over  to  see  her  brother  from  Strathfield 
Mortimer;  and  the  Duke,  having  no  ladies,  gave  her  a 
private  room  to  see  him  in.  At  breakfast  the  Duke  and 
all  his  non-legal  guests  appeared  in  red  coats  for  the 

1  Of  Bedale,  in  the  North  Riding. 

'Captain  Joseph  Denninn,  at  the  moment,  I  suppose,  first  officer  of  the 
West  African  squadron,  then  in  Cadiz  harbor. 

3  "Ah,  dear,"  says  Mrs.  Gamp,  "when  Gamp  was  summonsed  to  his  long 
home,  and  I  saw  him  a-!a'ying  in  Guy's  Ho-pital,  with  a  penny  piece  over 
each  eye,  and  his  wooden  leg  under  his  left  arm,  I  thought  I  should  have 
fainted  away — hut  I  bore  up."  Had  Dickens  ever  heard  Lord  Denman's 
story  of  the  hostler's  widow?  Likely  enough. 


72  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1837— 

meet,  which  was  to  take  place  that  morning  in  the  neigh- 
borhood ;  and  it  is  a  circumstance  that  seems  to  have 
made  an  impression  on  the  present  Lord  Denman's 
memory,  that  the  Duke  had  a  "  tag,"  or  hook-and-eye 
apparatus,  attached  to  the  collar  of  his  "  pink,"  which 
enabled  him  to  close  it  round  the  tiiroat  like  a  great 
coat. 

In  the  session  of  1838,  Denman  first  brought  before  the 
House  of  Lords  a  subject  which  much  interested  him, 
and  on  which  he  had  previously,  by  letter,  consulted  all 
the  members  of  the  Bench — the  substitution  of  affirma- 
tions for  oaths  in  all  cases  where  witnesses  entertained 
conscientious  scruples  against  being  sworn.  The  answers 
of  the  Judges  were  unfavorable;  but  the  Chief  Justice 
persevered,  and,  on  June  15,  1838,  moved,  in  the  Lords, 
that  the  report  on  the  "  Oaths  Validity  Bill  "  be  received. 

This  Bill,  as  Lord  Denman  explained  to  the  House, 
contained  two  clauses,  having  for  their  object  :  the  first, 
to  enable  all  witnesses  to  be  sworn  according  to  the/<?r;# 
binding  on  their  consciences  ;  the  second,  to  enable  all 
those  who  believed  that  no  oath  ought  to  be  taken,  to 
make  affirmation  instead. 

The  first  clause,  he  stated,  was  merely  a  declaration  of 
the  Common  Law  of  England,  the  principle  of  which 
was,  that  the  conscience  of  the  individual  was  the  only 
law  to  be  resorted  to  in  swearing  him  in.  Such  affirma- 
tion of  the  Common  Law  had  been  rendered  necessary 
by  a  recent  decision  of  the  Irish  Judges,  to  the  effect 
that  the  evidence  of  the  well-known  Dr.  Cooke,  of  Bel- 
fast, who  had  been  sworn,  not  in  the  usual  mode,  but 
with  uplifted  hands,  according  to  the  practice  of  the 
Presbyteiians,  had  been  wrongly  admitted  by  the  Judge 
who  tried  the  case:  the  consequence  of  which  decision 
had  been  that  the  prisoner,  who  had  been  convicted 
on  the  sole  eviJence  of  Dr.  Cooke,  had.  though  his 
guilt  was  most  clear,  been  unavoidably  discharged  from 
custody. 

The  second  clause  of  the  Bill  enabled  witnesses  who 
thought  an  oath  wrong  to  take  an  affirmation  instead. 
On  this  clause,  Denman  observed: 

"  Now,  if  the  principle  of  allowing  a  witness  to  be 
sworn  according  to  that  form  which  was  binding  on  his 


1841.]  SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  73 

conscience  were  good,  it  followed  that  the  second  clause 
was  equally  fit  and  necessary  to  be  introduced  as  part 
of  the  enactments  of  the  country;  for,  if  it  were  not  fit 
to  impose  on  a  witness  an  oath  in  a  different  form  from 
that  in  which  he  conscientiously  believed,  it  followed 
as  a  corollary  that  if  a  witness  believed  that  no  oath 
at  all  should  be  taken,  his  affirmation  should  be  received 
instead." 

Notwithstanding  this  entirely  irrefragable  argument, 
the  Lords,  influenced  a  good  deal  by  Lord  Abinger,  who 
on  this  occasion  represented  the  opposition  of  the  great 
body  of  the  Common-Law  Judges,  shrunk  from  taking 
the  wise  and  moderate  step  in  Law  Reform  to  which  the 
Chief  Justice  pointed  the  way;  and  he,  seeing  the  sense 
of  the  House  to  be  against  him,  was  content  with  carrying 
the  first  clause  only,1  reserving  the  second  to  be  em- 
bodied in  a  separate  Bill,  which,  when  subsequently 
brought  before  the  House  (on  July  14),  and  pressed  to  a 
division,  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  16,  half  the  whole 
number  that  voted  ;  the  contents  being  16,  and  the  non- 
contents  32." 

There  will  be  occasion  hereafter  to  relate  the  subse- 
quent Parliamentary  exertions  of  the  Chief  Justice  on 
the  subject  of  substituting  affirmations  for  oaths,  and 
to  state  what  the  law  of  England,  on  the  matter,  at 
present  is. 

It  was  in  this  year,  too,  that  the  Chief  Justice  was 
mainly  instrumental  in  promoting  and  carrying  into 
effect  that  great  and  beneficial  reform  in  the  administra- 
tion of  Justice,  by  which  the  Common-Law  Courts  were 
enabled  to  sit  in  Bane,  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  the 
four  legal  Terms,  and  to  hear  arguments  and  deliver 
judgments  in  Vacation. 

Lord  Denman  used  to  calculate  that  in  the  twelve 
years  that  elapsed  between  1838  and  1850  (the  year  of 
his  retirement),  no  less  than  two  additional  years  of  sit- 
tings, were,  by  this  measure,  given  to  the  public.  This 
circumstance  so  gratified  him,  that  he  desired  it  to  be 
recorded  on  his  tomb — a  desire  carried  out  by  his  eldest 
son,  who  has  caused  the  fact  to  be  inscribed  on  the 

1  Hansard,  Par!.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xliii.  pp.  756-767. 
'Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xliv.  p.  319  et  seq. 


74  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1837— 

stone  that  covers  his  remains  in  Stoke  Albany  church- 
yard. 

The  Long  Vacation  of  1838  was  spent  as  usual  at 
Stony  Middleton,  in  planting,  thinning,  and  improving, 
entertaining  friends,  making  visits  and  excursions,  and 
keeping  pace  with  the  current  literature  of  the  day. 

On  September  27,  writing  from  Middleton  to  his  friend 
Coleridge,  whose  tastes  and  pursuits  were  very  similar 
to  his  own,  he  says : 

"  My  life  has  been  much  like  yours.  My  literary  taste, 
such  as  it  is,  I  find  quite  as  strong  as  ever,  and  perhaps 
rather  more  eager  ;  but  I  have  no  fellow-student,  so  I 
can  not  venture  on  the  ancient  classics.  One  of  yours,  or 
very  likely  yourself,  can  perhaps  tell  me  from  what  play 
I  took  a  motto  that  has  been  a  favorite  with  me  nearly 
half  a  century — 

Mrj  Zoorjv  JJST  a^ovfficxs 
'Aei  d  €v  Hidapaiffiv  zitjv. 

In  the  same  strain  he  writes  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Baillie: 

"  We  have  had  a  holiday  rather  too  agreeable  to 
me,  as  a  life  of  literary  quiet,  to  be  just  the  thing  for 
young  ladies;  but  you  know  how  good  and  considerate 
mine  are.  I  flatter  myself  that  both1  are  much  im- 
proved in  health,  and  my  lady  is  a  great  deal  stronger 
than  she  used  to  be.  Last  week  I  took  George  a  to  Cam- 
bridge, and  settled  him  under  Mr.  Whewell 3  to  my 
entire  satisfaction,  and  with  the  earnest  hope  that  he 
may  distinguish  himself.  I  may  probably  inclose  his 
late  master's  testimonial." 

The  hope  thus  expressed  was  brilliantly  realized.  The 
name  of  the  Honorable  George  Denman  was  first  in  the 
first  class  of  the  Classic  Tripos  for  1842,  and  the  next  year 
he  became  Fellow  of  Trinity — honors  which  caused 
inexpressible  delight  to  his  father,  who  had  watched 
with  sanguine,  yet  anxious  fondness,  every  step  in  his 
son's  University  career. 

The    tebtimonial    referred   to   in    the  letter  to    Mrs. 

1  His  third  and  fourth  daughters,  Fanny  and  Margaret,  now  Lady  Baynes 
and  Mrs.  Cropper. 

2  His  fourth  son,  now  the  Hon.  Mr.  Justice  Denman. 
8  The  famous  Master  of  Trinity. 


1841.]  SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  75 

Baillie  was  from  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Macaulay,  the  master 
of  Repton  School,  where  George  Denman  had  been 
educated.1 

In  the  course  of  the  same  letter,  Denman  indulges  in 
a  little  literary  gossip  about  Brougham's  then  recently 
published  "  Characters,"  &c.,  which  is  interesting  from 
the  evidence  it  affords  of  Denman's  deeply  rooted  and 
unchanged  veneration  for  Fox. 

"Brougham's  'Characters'  are  very  lively,  and  his 
views  in  general,  I  think,  just;  but  I  have  complained 
to  him  of  his  disparaging  Fox.  We  are  in  high  contro- 
versy about  it,  and,  if  I  had  time,  I  think  I  could  not 
refrain  from  printing.  I  hope  Lord  Holland  or  some 
one  else  will.  A  review  of  those  times  convinces  me  of 
Fox's  good  qualities  more  than  ever ;  yet  Brougham 
hardly  raises  him  above  the  level  of  Pitt,  whose  whole 
life,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  was  nothing  but  the 
love  of  office."2 

He  then  refers,  as  follows,  to  Macaulay's  well-known 
article  on  Sir  W.  Temple : 

"  Macaulay  ought  to  have  vindicated  Temple  against 
his  foolish  biographer,  of  whom  Bessie  [Mrs.  Hodgson] 
and  I  said  last  year  that  he  found  a  white  marble  statue, 
and  took  delight  in  spoiling  it  by  scrawling  with  a  black 
lead  pencil,  first  his  own  name,  and  then  all  manner  of 
nonsense.  It  is  as  reasonable  to  quarrel  with  Temple  for 
not  being  Russell  or  Sidney,  as  for  not  being  Marl- 
borough  or  Somers.  It  is  not  the  heroic  line;  but  an 
honorable,  amiable,  and  consistent  man,  whose  life  was 
devoted  to  the  honest  service  of  the  public  and  to 
literature,  should  have  been  left  in  possession  of  all  the 
respect  the  world  was  paying  him. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  1839,  tne  Chief  Justice,  as  already 

1  The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  testimonial  : — "  It  is  with  great 
regret  that  I  take  leave  of  George,  though  with  complete  satisfaction  as  far 
as  his  state  of  preparation  for  Cambridge  is  concerned.  If  he  continues 
throughout  to  exert  himself  with  the  same  activity  and  perseverance  which 
has  marked  the  last  year  or  two,  nothing  can  prevent  his  highly  distinguish- 
ing himself.  With  regard  to  the  last  two  months,  I  can  truly  say  I  have 
never  known  an  equal  period  of  time  more  industriously  or  more  profitably 
employed." 

"A  gross  injustice  to  Pitt,  of  which  Fox's  idolaters  were  too  often  guilty. 
The  statesman  who  was  killed  by  Austerlitz  had  something  else  in  him  than 
love  of  office — he  had  love  for  country  and  glory. 


jt  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1837— 

mentioned,  was  anxiously  and  laboriously  engaged  on 
the  great  question  of  Privilege,  and  he  does  not  appear 
to  have  spoken  in  the  House  of  Lords  till  July 
18,  when  he  supported  the  second  reading  of  the 
bill  (called  "  The  Custody  of  Infants'  Bill  ")  for  giving 
the  wife  right  of  access  to  her  children  in  cases  of  separa- 
tion. In  the  course  of  his  speech  he  said : 

"  Some  alteration,  and  that  of  a  sweeping  nature, 
was  absolutely  necessary  to  the  due  administration  of 
justice,  and  for  the  prevention  of  the  frightful  injuries 
to  society  which  the  existing  system  gave  birth  to.  The 
existing  law  was  cruel  to  the  wife,  debasing  to  the  hus- 
band, dangerous  and  probably  ruinous  to  the  health  and 
morals  of  the  children,  who  could  not  have  any  such 
sure  guarantee  against  corruption  under  the  tutelage  of 
a  profligate  father  as  the  occasional  care  of  a  mother." 

The  Chief  Justice  instanced  the  case  of  the  King  v. 
Greenhill,  which  had  been  decided  in  1836,  before  him- 
self and  the  rest  of  the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench.  "  He  believed,"  he  said,  "  that  there  was  not 
one  judge  on  the  Bench  who  had  not  felt  ashamed  of 
the  state  of  the  law,  and  that  it  was  such  as  to  render 
it  odious  in  the  eyes  of  the  country.  The  effect  in  the 
case  he  had  mentioned  would  have  been,  unless  Mrs. 
Greenhill- had  fled  from  this  country  with  her  children, 
to  have  enabled  the  father  to  take  his  children  from  his 
young  and  blameless  wife,  and  place  them  in  charge  of 
the  woman  with  whom  he  then  cohabited.1 

The  just  and  powerful  observations  of  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice, co-operating  with  the  brilliant  eloquence  of  Tal- 
fourd  in  the  Commons,  were  mainly  instrumental  in 
bringing  about  such  partial  and  incomplete  change  for 
the  better,  as  has  since  been  realized  in  this  peculiarly 
difficult  and  delicate  department  of  the  law. 

In  the  Summer  Assizes  of  1839,  Denman  presided  on 
the  Home  Circuit,  accompanied  by  the  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Common  Pleas,  Sir  Nicholas  C.  Tindal,  for  whom 
he  always  entertained  the  highest  respect  and  esteem, 
and  who,  on  this  occasion,  paid  him  the  unusual  and 

'Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xlix.  p.  491  et  seq.  This  was 
the  measure  in  the  promotion  of  which,  Talfourd  so  brilliantly  distinguished 
himself  in  the  House  of  Commons. 


1841.]          SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  77 

flattering  compliment  of  going  with  him  on  circuit  as 
second  judge.1 

It  was  while  on  this  circuit  that  Denman  received 
a  pleasing  reminiscence  of  the  virtues  of  his  excellent 
father,  in  the  announcement  of  a  legacy  of  £10,000,  left 
among  his  unmarried  daughters,  under  the  will  of  the 
venerable  Sir  Francis  Drake  (a  lineal  descendant  of  the 
famous  old  sea  hero),  who,  when  a  young  captain  in 
command  of  the  "  Edgar,"  had  been  most  anxiously 
nursed  and  skillfully  tended  in  a  dangerous  illness  by  Dr. 
Denman,  then  the  ship's  surgeon,  whom  he  ever  after- 
wards regarded  as  a  brother.  In  his  extreme  old  age, 
Sir  Francis  had  bequeathed  to  the  granddaughters  of  his 
old  friend  and  benefactor  this  substantial  token  of  his 
gratitude  and  affection. 

Lord  Denman  hurried  off  from  circuit  to  be  present 
in  the  House  of  Lords  on  August  15,  when,  on  the 
second  reading  of  the  Government  "  Bill  for  the  Better 
Suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade,"  he  made  a  most  able 
and  masterly  speech,  which  greatly  contributed  to  the 
success  of  the  ministry,  who  had  recently  been  outvoted 
in  the  Lords  on  the  cognate  measure  known  as  the 
"  Slave  Trade  (Portugal)  Bill."  This  was  the  earliest  of 
Dcnman's  great  exertions  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the 
question  of  the  West  African  Slave  Trade — a  question 
which  from  this  time  forward  was  destined  to  make 
claims  on  his  heart  and  brain,  that  had  much  to  do  with 
gradually  undermining  his  constitution,  and  which,  from 
its  effect  on  his  nervous  system,  prepared  the  way  for 
the  inroads  of  that  disease  which  ultimately  prostrated 
him. 

On  the  present  occasion,  one  of  his  great  objects  was 
to  allay  the  alarms  assiduously  propagated  by  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  and  Lord  Lyndhurst,  and  to  satisfy  the 
House  that  the  fears  of  war  with  France,  as  likely  to 
arise  out  of  the  execution  of  the  more  stringent  methods 
of  suppression  sanctioned  by  the  Bill,  were,  in  truth, 
baseless  and  chimerical.  His  principal  and  entirely  cor- 
rect point  was  this,  that  no  act  of  Parliament  can  give 

1  It  hardly  ever  happens  that  two  Chief  Justices,  or  a  Chief  Justice  and 
Chief  Baron,  go  the  same  circuit. 


78  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1837— 

the  Crown  powers  of  search,  detention,  and  seizure  which 
it  does  not  possess  by  treaty. 

"  My  lords,  in  respect  of  the  possible  seizure  of  other 
vessels,  [i.  e.,  not  Spanish  or  Portuguese],  I  am  really 
sorry  to  say  one  word  on  the  subject  after  what  has 
fallen  from  my  npble  and  learned  friend  [Brougham],  I 
feel  ashamed  to  repeat  that  no  act  of  Parliament  can 
give  the  Crown  power  to  seize  vessels  which  it  is  pre- 
cluded from  seizing  by  treaties.  The  words  '  any  vessel ' 
mean  only  any  vessel  which  the  Crown  is  now  permitted 
to  seize  by  treaties  into  which  it  has  entered,  and  does 
not  include  any  vessel  which,  under  the  treaties,  it  could 
not  capture." 

On  the  general  question  he  said : 

"  Your  lordships  ought  not  to  allow  any  opportunity 
to  pass  which  will  enable  you  to  make  the  suppression 
of  the  Slave  Trade  not  merely  a  name  but  a  fact.  When 
once  it  has  been  established  that  the  slave  trade  is  ille- 
gal, the  restraints  which  treaties  have  put  upon  its  aboli- 
tion ought  to  be  looked  at  with  a  jealous  eye.  That  is 
the  principle  by  which  your  lordships  ought  to  bi 
guided." 

Adverting  to  the  indemnity  proposed  to  be  given 
by  the  Bill  to  the  officers  engaged  in  the  suppression 
of  the  trade,  Lord  Denman  expressed  himself  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  I  say  the  necessity  is  imposed  on  your  lordships  of 
providing  that  judges  should  henceforth  be  relieved 
from  the  necessity  of  stating  that  a  man  engaged  in  the 
capture  of  his  fellow  creatures  for  sale  is  engaged  in  a 
legal  traffic,  and,  at  the  same  time,  of  telling  a  jury  that 
the  man  who,  in  obedience  to  your  lordships'  orders,  has 
stopped  him  in  his  inhuman  traffic,  is  guilty  of  a  pun- 
ishable offense.  I  say  your  lordships  are  called  upon  to 
do  something  for  the  protection  of  your  own  agents, 
acting  under  your  own  enactments.  There  must  be  the 
right  of  visitation  and  search,  and,  if  a  mistake  is  made, 
the  officer  making  the  mistake  must  be  liable,  or  the 
State  in  his  place.  If  it  were  not  so,  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  take  any  steps  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade.  By  this  bill  the  Government  take  upon  them- 
selves the  responsibility  of  the  whole  matter,  and  call 


1841.]  SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  79 

upon  the  House  to  do  nothing  but  indemnify  the  officers 
of  Her  Majesty  in  the  discharge  of  the  duty  imposed  on 
them ;  and  to  allow  the  Admiralty  Court  to  adjudicate 
on  seizures  made  under  the  treaties."1 

Denman's  powerful  and  masterly  appeal,  urged  with 
all  the  sincerity  of  deep  conviction,  and  with  a  ripe 
maturity  of  legal  knowledge,  produced  a  great  effect  on 
the  House;  and  the  ministry,  who  had  been  anticipating 
defeat,  were  agreeably  surprised  to  find  themselves  on 
the  division  in  a  majority  of  II.  Contents  39,  against 
non-contents  28. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington,  followed  by  thirteen  peers, 
including  Lord  Lyndhurst,  entered  a  protest  against  the 
second  reading,  which  the  Duke  and  seven  peers 
repeated  on  August  19,  when  the  bill  was  read  a  third 
time  and  passed.  It  received  the  royal  assent  on  August 
24,  and  on  the  2/th,  Parliament  was  prorogued. 

The  two  following  communications,  both  under  the 
same  cover,  which  Denman  wrote  to  his  wife,  one  on 
August  15,  just  before  making  his  speech,  and  the  other 
on  the  i6th,  after  it  had  been  delivered  with  success, 
are  not  without  interest ;  the  first  was  written  in  the 
library  of  the  House  of  Lords,  the  second  at  the  Old 
Bailey,  where  he  was  presiding  as  one  of  the  judges  on 
the  rota  of  the  Central  Criminal  Court. 

"  Thursday,  August  15,  1839. 

"  My  dearest  Love, — I  have  stolen  out  of  the  House 
of  Lords  into  the  library,  to  tell  you  with  my  own  hand 
that  I  am  alive  and  well,  though  in  a  state  of  the  utmost 
anxiety  about  the  Slave  Trade  Bill.  We  are  threatened 
with  an  opposition  to  it,  the  great  Duke  appearing  dis- 
posed to  persist  in  the  error  he  committed  a  fortnight 
ago.1  If  it  comes  to  a  division,  I  must  make  a  speech, 
and  that  is  an  operation  by  no  means  enviable  here." 

"Central  Criminal  Court  (vulgarly,  Old  Bailey), 
"  Friday,  August  16. 

"  I  continue  my  narrative.  The  Duke  persisted  in 
his  opposition  ;  the  debate  went  on  with  much 
heat  on  both  sides,  and  a  decided  majcrity  to  all 

1  Denman's  speech  is  reported  in  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.   1, 

PP-  330-334- 

1  On  the  "  Slave  Trade  (Portugal)  Bill,"  see  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third 
series,  vol.  xlix.  p.  1058  et  seq. 


8o  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1837— 

appearance  in  his  support.  So  as  I  could  do  no  harm 
by  making  a  speech,  I  tried  to  do  some  good,  and  I 
believe  that  I  had  some  effect  on  the  decision.  The 
Bishop  of  London  [Blomfield]  had  previously  declared 
in  his  favor,  and  five  other  peers  who  usually  vote 
with  the  Duke  came  over  to  the  support  of  our 
measure.  You  will  be  pleased  to  hear  that  one  of  them 
was  Lord  Sondes.  In  the  result  we  counted  thirty-nine, 
our  opponents  only  twenty-eight.  You  may  conceive 
the  captain's  [now  Admiral  Denman's]  delight,  and  he 
has  good  right  to  feel  it,  for  his  efforts  have  mainly  con- 
tributed to  annihilate  this  monstrous  wickedness  called 
the  Slave  Trade.  Brougham  made  an  excellent  speech 
on  the  right  side.  Lyndhurst,  though  he  followed  his  lead- 
er [the  Duke  of  Wellington], had  thegrace  to  be  silent." 

What  follows  is  a  curious  and  vivid  sketch  from  the 
life,  of  the  predatory  habits  of  London  children  of  the 
criminal  class: 

"  Two  little  girls  are  at  this  moment  standing  at  the 
bar,  ten  and  eleven  years  of  age.  Their  foreheads  hardly 
come  in  sight.  They  are  charged  with  picking  a  lady's 
pocket  in  a  jeweler's  shop  on  Saturday  night  at  eleven. 
Almost  immediately  after  she  had  been  robbed,  the  lady 
had  the  younger  taken  up,  playing  in  the  streets.  She 
had  already  thrown  away  the  purse,  and  changed  a  crown 
piece  and  two  half-crowns,  having  purchased  a  doll  and 
some  trinkets.  She  said  the  elder  girl  had  '  tapped ' 
the  lady's  pocket,  and  that  she  then  proceeded  to  pick 
it.  As  to  the  purse,  she  said  she  always  threw  away  the 
purses ! " 

In  September,  1839,  Denman  wrote  from  his  favorite 
Middleton  to  his  son,  George,  who  was  then  reading  in 
the  vacation  with  a  tutor: 

"  I  am  delighted  to  hear  of  your  steady  proceeding  in 
your  studies — all  the  more  so,  because  you  have  got  out 
of  my  depth  There  is  no  feeling  more  deeply  rooted  in 
human  nature,  than  that  ascribed  to  Hector, 

"Kaci  Tfort  n?  siTtrjdt,  TtarpoZ  Soye  no\.\ov  apsivcav.* 
"  A  thousand  times   have   I   had  cause  to  regret  that  I 

1  "Some  one  may,  perchance,  say  in  the  aftertime,  Why,  the  son  is  even 
a  better  man  than  the  father;"  from  Hector's  speech  to  Andromache. — 
Iliad,  vi.  479. 


1841.]          SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE,  81 

stopped  short  in  the  career  you  are  now  pursuing :  Per- 
gite,  juve ncs  !  " 

The  year  1840  was  that  in  which  Denman  saw  the  end 
of  the  Privilege  controversy  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
His  principal  effort  was  the  remarkable  and  masterly 
speech,  already  sufficiently  referred  to  in  the  last  chap- 
ter, by  which,  on  April  6,  1840,  he  prefaced  his  vote  on 
the  second  reading  of  the  Printed  Papers  Bill. 

He  had  previously,  on  February  17,  1840,  laid  on  the 
table  of  the  House  of  Lords  a  bill  which  not  long  after- 
wards became  law,  the  object  of  which  was  to  provide 
that  in  all  actions  of  libel  or  slander  in  which  damages 
under  40^.  were  awarded,  such  damages  should  not  carry 
costs  beyond  the  amount  of  the  verdict-— a  measure  of 
obvious  utility,  inasmuch  as  actions  for  small  libels  were 
of  constant  occurrence,  which  were  only  introduced  for 
the  sake  of  the  costs.* 

Later  in  the  session,  on  June  I,  1840,  Lord  Denman, 
on  the  second  reading  of  the  bill  for  the  better  adminis- 
tration of  justice  in  Chancery,  stated  to  the  House  that 
he  had  come,  though  with  great  reluctance,  to  a  full  con- 
viction that  it  was  necessary  to  increase  the  judicial 
strength  of  the  Court  of  Chancery,  and  that  the  sooner 
that  remedy  was  applied  the  better.8 

In  the  spring  of  1840,  Denman  was  greatly  interested 
in  the  election  for  the  Provostship  of  Eton,  which,  after 
many  complications,  at  length  terminated  in  favor  of  his 
old  friend  and  son-in-law.  Archdeacon  Hodgson. 

The  nature  of  the  complications  referred  to  are  ex- 
plained in  the  following  letter  to  the  Archdeacon,  writ- 
ten two  days  after  Denman's  great  speech  in  the  Lords 
on  the  Printed  Papers  Bill. 

"  April  8,  1840. 

"  My  dear  Hodgson, — I  am  now  about  to  tell  you  all 
I  know  about  this  extraordinary  involvement  of  facts. 
William  Herbert  -was  the  man,  but  was  found  ineligible, 
as  on  neither  foundation  at  any  time.  You  were  then 
the  man,  and  the  state  of  things  I  described  to  you  on 
Monday  night  arose.  Lord  Melbourne  afterwards,  in- 
deed, said,  '  Of  course  Hodgson  is  a  B.  D. — that  ad 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Hi.  p.  316. 
*  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  liii.  p.  1020. 
II.— 6 


82  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1837— 

minus  the  statutes  require.'  I  was  fully  persuaded  of 
the  affirmative,  principally  from  my  full  confidence  in 
Drury's  spirit  of  business,  though  Merivale  thought  he 
must  have  heard  of  your  going  to  graduate.  The  Fel- 
lows, however,  have  now  returned  an  answer  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  State,  that  you  being  unqualified  as  not  B.  D., 
they  have  proceeded  to  elect  one  qualified.  I  believe, 
and  have  no  doubt,  that  this  is  Lonsdale  [it  was  soj.  In 
their  answer,  the  Fellows  stated  their  willingness  to  do 
what  was  required,  but  for  this  obstacle. 

"  Now,  I  much  doubt  whether  Lonsdale  will  accept 
the  appointment,  which  would  be  incompatible  with 
some  of  his  present  preferment — the  Golden  Prebend, 
King's  College  and  Lincoln's  Inn — though  he  has  a  very 
good  living  tenable  with  the  Provostship.  If  he  resigns, 
a  mandate  must  go  down,  of  course,  with  your  name 
again.  I  never  saw  the  Duke  [of  Devonshire]  look 
black  till  last  night  in  the  House,  when,  in  answer  to  my 
first  approach,  he  said,  '  I  don't  understand  it.'  He  is 
gone  to  Paris." 

The  Queen,  who  thought  highly  of  Hodgson,  and  had 
set  her  mind  on  his  appointment,  was  vexed  with  the 
Fellows  for  having  rejected  "  her  Provost "  as  she  called 
him.  A  second  special  mandate  was  issued  ;  Lonsdale, 
though  desirous  of  the  appointment,  on  an  intimation 
of  the  royal  feeling  in  the  matter,  declined  to  accept  it ; ' 
Hodgson  qualified  at  Cambridge  as  a  B.  D.,  and  the  legal 
difficulty  being  thus  got  over,  he  was  at  length  duly 
elected  Provost.4 

Before  the  matter  was  quite  decided  Denman  had 
written  as  follows  to  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Hodgson,  who, 
in  the  letter  to  which  he  replies,  would  appear  to  have 
said  something  about  money  difficulties,  and  also  to 
have  complained  of  the  declaration  made  by  some  in- 
fluential personage  (possibly  Lord  Melbourne  himself) 
of  his  determination  not  to  take  any  active  step  in  her 
husband's  behalf. 

1  Lonsdale,  not  very  long  afterwards,  became  Bishop  of  Litchfield — a  pro- 
motion undoubtedly  due  to  his  high  character  and  professional  claims,  but 
with  which  his  self-denial  in  the  matter  of  the  Provostship  may  possibly 
also  have  had  some  little  connection. 

*  The  value  of  the  Provostship  was  then  from  £2,000  to  ^3,000  a.  year. 
Hodgson,  on  his  election,  resigned  his  other  preferment. 


1841.]  SOCIAL     AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  83 

"Your  letter  was  very  welcome  to  me,  and  delighted 
me  with  the  statement  of  your  happiness.  With  regard 
to  what  you  mention  towards  the  close  of  your  letter, 
I  fairly  acknowledge  that  I  am  by  no  means  surprised, 
having  a  strong  impression  that  if  there  is  a.ny  one 
person  in  England  less  addicted  to  economy  than 
your  own  family  it  is  your  lord  and  master. 

"  One  comfort  is,  that,  on  the  principle  of  two  nega- 
tives, your  baby  bids  fair  to  be  as  prudent  a  young  lady 
as  Miss  Coutts  herself. 

"You  must,  however,  renounce  the  opinion  that  little 
can  be  done  by  care  and  experience.  In  truth,  every- 
thing can  be  done  with  it — certainly  nothing  can  be 
done  without  it.  The  largest  income  is  insufficient  with- 
out good  regulation  of  the  expenditure,  and  a  very  mod- 
erate one  will  do  wonders  for  comfort  and  respectability 
if  united  with  the  necessary  qualities.  I  do  not  refer 
our  defects  to  nature,  except  in  Fontenelle's  sense,  '  If 
custom  is  the  second  nature,  tell  me  what  is  the  first?' 
I  take  infinite  pains  to  correct  myself,  in  spite  of  the 
bumps  behind  the  ear,  and  hope  to  succeed  by  the  time 
I  am  actually  leaving  the  world. 

"  On  the  other  subject,  I  own  I  feel  a  surprise  at  so 
decided  a  declaration  of  non-interference.  It  is  a  strong 
proof  of  the  multitude  of  besiegers  of  the  dispensers  of 
patronage.  I  have  some  reason  to  know  this  in  my  own 
case.  You  have  probably  heard  me  express  some  un- 
willingness as  a  judge  to  make  such  applications,  and  I 
can  not  tell  how  far  this  folly  of  the  House  of  Commons* 
may  affect  whatever  influence  I  possess.  But  you  may 
fully  rely,  in  this  case,  on  my  passing  over  no  chance 
of  obtaining  what  you  desire  and  are  so  justly  entitled 
to." 

In  the  summer  of  1840,  with  a  view  to  comparatively 
light  work  and  the  enjoyment  of  fine  scenery,  Denman 
cliose  the  North  Wales  Circuit,  on  which  he  was  ac- 
companied, as  Marshal,  by  his  youngest  son,  Lewis,  then 
a  youth  of  nineteen,  now  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Lewis 
Denman.  Rector  of  Willian,  in  Hertfordshire,  who  has 
kindly  communicated  an  amusing  incident  that  occurred 

1  In  the  Stockdale  ».  Hansard  case.  This  was  written  while  the  discos- 
lions  on  the  Printed  Papers  Bill  wore  pending. 


$4  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1837— 

at  the  outset  of  the  circuit,  and  which  is  here  related  in 
his  own  words : 

"  On  July  25,  1840,  I  went  with  my  father  as  Marshal, 
on  the  North  Wales  Circuit.  The  first  place  of  holding 
the  assizes  was  Newtown  (now,  with  Welshpool,  one  of 
the  two  assize  towns  for  Montgomeryshire),  and  I  think 
this  was  the  first  occasion  on  which  a1  judge  had  ever 
been  there.  When  about  three  miles  from  Newtown  we 
were  met  by  the  Sheriff,  Mr.  Evans,  with  a  coach  and 
four  good  horses,  and  twenty  mounted  javelin  men. 
My  father  had  told  me  to  order  the  post-boys  to  make 
the  best  of  their  way  to  the  lodgings  at  Newtown,  to 
get  things  ready  for  him,  he  himself  going  in  the  Sheriffs 
carriage,  which  he  expected,  as  usual,  would  proceed  at 
a  walking  pace.  I  ordered  the  post-boys  to  make  the 
best  of  their  way,  and  so  they  did ;  and,  whether  it  was 
that  there  had  been  no  experience  of  the  general 
custom  of  a  judge  coming  slowly  into  an  assize  town, 
or  whether  it  was  owing,  as  is  quite  possible,  to  the 
Welsh  blood  of  the  Sheriff's  coachman  being  up,  I  can't 
say,  but  certain  it  is  that  the  Sheriff's  yellow  coach  and 
four,  with  my  father  and  the  Sheriff  in  it,  came  after  me 
at  a  tremendous  pace.  Perhaps  the  coachman  thought 
he  ought  to  have  taken  the  lead,  but  the  post-boys  did 
as  I  had  told  them,  in  accordance  with  my  father's  orders, 
and  we  held  our  own,  doing  the  three  or  four  miles  at 
about  the  rate  of  twenty  miles  an  hour.  Nor  was  this 
all ;  the  javelin  men,  of  course,  had  to  keep  up  with  us, 
but,  instead  of  keeping  near  the  Sheriff,  they  went  ahead 
of  me,  and  made  the  running  still  stronger,  now  jostling 
one  another  into  the  ditches  by  the  side  of  the  road, 
now  scrambling  over  heaps  of  stones,  &c.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  my  Lord  got  into  Newton  very  much 
quicker  than  he  expected  ;  and  he,  having  good  nerves 
and  not  too  much  punctiliousness,  was  extremely  glad 
of  it." 

From  Ruthin,  the  assize  town  of  Denbighshire, 
towards  the  close  of  the  circuit,  the  Chief  Justice  wrote 
as  follows  to  Lady  Denman  at  Middleton : 

"  Here  we  are,  my  dearest  love,  having  reached  the 

1  Probably  tlie  Judge  should  be  the  reading,  "sed  quart." 


i84i.J         SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  85 

extreme  point  of  our  long  travel,  and  from  henceforth 
turning  our  horses'  heads  regularly  though  slowly 
towards  home.  We  were  much  interested  with  Holy- 
head — which  we  left  on  Saturday  afternoon,  and  at  night 
slept  at  a  most  comfortable  inn  at  Bangor.  We  pro- 
ceeded soon  after  breakfast,  and  then  traversed  the 
finest  country  we  have  yet  seen.  It  is  a  part  I  have 
never  seen  before,  and  I  was  most  anxious  to  become 
acquainted  with  it.  Never  was  curiosity  better  repaid. 
We  stopped  for  one  glorious  object,  a  Rhaiadr,  which 
means  the  fall  of  a  river.  The  Ligwy  runs  far  over  a 
rocky  bed,  gradually  sloping  till  it  falls  in  one  immense 
cascade  of  great  height  and  descends  yet  lower,  tumbling 
and  foaming  through  great  masses  of  stone.  The  steep 
banks  are  covered  with  fine  wood — the  sight,  the  dew, 
the  spray  on  our  faces,  and  the  clear  sunshine  overhead, 
made  the  half-hour  most  truly  delightful. 

"  It  has  almost  put  out  of  my  head  another  object  even 
more  peculiar;  this  is  the  South-Stack  Lighthouse,  at 
the  very  extremity  of  the  Isle  of  Anglesea,  about  three 
miles  from  Holyhead.  We  arrived  at  it  over  a  barren 
moor  covered  with  loose  stones,  and  had  the  sea,  which 
was  almost  at  high  water,  on  every  side  of  us — the  coast 
formed  of  a  line  of  huge  rocks.  When  we  had  reached 
what  appeared  the  world's  end,  suddenly,  on  a  much 
lower  level,  a  long  tongue  of  land  ran  out  into  the 
water,  at  whose  extremity  stands  the  lighthouse.  Tom 
and  I  descended  some  hundreds  of  rude  steps  cut  in  the 
hill's  precipitous  sides,  and,  when  near  the  bottom, 
found  ourselves  shut  out  by  a  locked  door.  Long  and 
loud  hallooing  seemed  thrown  away,  for  not  a  creature 
was  to  be  discovered.  At  length,  as  we  were  remount- 
ing our  path  in  despair,  a  man  came  out  of  the  dwelling 
house  to  the  door — no  small  distance — and  admitted  us 
to  a  drawbridge  suspended  from  rock  to  rock,  a  good 
height  above  the  water  which  separates  this  little  islet 
iVom  Anglesea. 

'•  We  then  visited  the  lighthouse,  and  were  just  so  much 
farther  out  at  sea.  This  little  island  is  remarkable — about 
400  yards  long  and  IOO  in  breadth,  perfectly  barren, 
though  it  contains  a  few  rabbits,  and  is  haunted  by  large 
sea-gulls,  whose  transparent  wings  expanded  against  the 


86  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN         [1837— 

sun  make  their  flight  beautiful,  while  their  screams  and 
their  ways  with  one  another  were  very  amusing. 

"  We  are  here  in  a  most  dismal  lodging,  and  threatened 
with  heavy  business — 80  witnesses  in  one  cause — with  no 
other  blessing  than  two  haunches  of  venison  and  nobody 
to  eat  them." 

From  Stony  Middleton,  at  the  close  of  July,  1840,  he 
writes  to  Merivale,  then  at  Barton  Place,  telling  him,  in 
triumph,  that  he  has  been  able  to  accomplish  the  journey 
from  Portland  Place  in  ten  hours,  and  that  his  planta- 
tions have,  thriven  so  prosperously  that  instead  of  Stony 
Middleton  his  favorite  retreat  must  thenceforth  be  called 
Woody  Middleton,  "formerly  Petrae,  now  Felix."  In  the 
middle  of  August,  he  writes  thence  to  his  sister,  Mrs. 
Baillie,  who  was  then  just  entering  on  her  7<Dth  year,  and 
was  at  the  time  staying  at  the  Provost's  Lodge  at  Eton, 
to  be  with  Mrs.  Hodgson  during  an  approaching  con- 
finement : 

"  Being  the  only  person  in  the  family  down  stairs,  I 
am  obliged  to  take  paper  on  which  Lewis  has  been  pre- 
paring his  drawings.1  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  from  you 
on  circuit,  and  delighted  with  what  you  say  of  Mrs. 
BrodieV  persevering  activity  and  warmth  of  heart.  Long 
may  it  continue.  In  fact,  this  class  of  old  ladies  has 
always  commanded  a  great  portion  of  my  regard  (as  if 
I  had  foreseen  that  I  was  one  day  to  be  of  their  order), 
and,  if  possible,  I  shall  love  even  you  better,  my  dear 
sister,  when  you  have  decidedly  entered  the  pale.  It 
gives  us  great  pleasure  to  hear  that  you  have  undertaken 
to  preside  over  Bessy's  nursery  on  the  approaching  occa- 
sion. I  trust  that  engagement  will  rather  tend  to  facili- 
tate than  to  defeat  your  visit  to  this  place.  It  is  a  con- 
siderable loss  to  me  that  you  have  not  been  here 
already,  because,  as  it  is,  you  can  not  be  made  to  under- 
stand the  advantage  which  the  place  has  gained  from  a 
small  acquisition  of  land.  But  the  positive  beauty 
which  has  thus  been  secured,  is  alone  well  worth  being 

1  Denman's  youngest  son.  now  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Lewis  Denman  :  he 
had  an  extraordinary  turn  and  a  great  talent  for  drawing  coaches  and  four 
— the  "Tantivies"  and  "Quicksilvers"  of  the  days  before  railways. 

'*  The  widow  of  Rev.  P.  B.  Brodie,  Lord  Denman's  uncle,  still  living  in 
1840,  in  extreme  old  age. 


1841.]  SOCIAL    AND    FAMILY    LIFE.  87 

acquainted  with.  The  weather  has  been  most  favorable, 
and  during  the  week  I  have  been  here  we  have  had 
breakfast  out  of  doors  every  morning.  I  had  a  most 
agreeable  circuit,  no  over-work,  and  the  finest  weather 
for  seeing  the  delightful  scenery ;  in  every  quarter  ex- 
treme hospitality  and  kindness.  I  took  the  opportunity 
of  crossing  the  Mersey  [from  Chester  to  Liverpool]  for 
the  purpose  of  paying  a  visit  to  Richard's  new  rela- 
tions ; '  nothing  could  be  more  satisfactory.  He  is  now 
at  Liverpool  attending  the  assizes,  and,  as  Emma  hopes, 
to  obtain  his  marriage  license  earlier  than  had  been 
promised.  George  [now  the  Honorable  Mr.  Justice 
Denman]  writes  to  Lewis  [his  younger  brother]  that  he 
is  reading  11  hours  a  day  without  at  all  suffering."  The- 
odosia  [Mrs.  Wright]  is  going  on  particularly  well  [after 
her  confinement]  ;  perhaps  top  well,  for  she  had  been 
up  and  in  the  garden  within  the  fortnight,  which  you  will 
not  permit,  I  think,  at  the  Provost's  Lodge." 
In  October  he  writes  as  follows  to  Coleridge : 
"  I  have  to  thank  you  for  the  most  kind  and  friendly 
letters,  which  I  could  almost  answer  by  copying  them,  as 
far  as  the  account  of  our  proceedings  is  concerned.  No 
two  people  lead  the  same  life  in  the  country  more 
completely  than  we  do.  Mine  has  been  a  very  happy 
one,  subject  to  no  drawback  but  in  respect  of  our  friends, 
and  that  of  no  grave  nature,  as  you  may  judge  from  the 
fact  that  none  has  touched  me  more  than  Patteson's  disap- 
pointment in  the  field.'  I  hope  he  was  not  annoyed  by 
William's  question,  which  I  sent  him,  whether  he  dis- 
poses of  points  that  arise  out  of  turnips  with  the  same 
unvarying  certainty  as  of  inferior  matters  ;  but  if  the 
former  faculty  is  really  impaired  by  time,  the  latter  has 
every  chance  of  being  (if  possible)  improved  by  it.  I 
like  Arnold's  idea  of  considering  the  Eternal  City 
[modern  Rome]  as  a  palimpsest,  scrawled  by  monkery 

1  The  Hon.  Richard  Denman,  the  third  son  of  his  father,  was  married  on 
October  27,  this  year,  to  Emma,  daughter  of  Hugh  Jones,  Esq.,  of  Liver- 
pool. 

. a  He  was  staying  up  at  Cambridge  for  the  purpose  of  studying  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  Long  Vacation. 

3  Mr.  Justice  Patteson  had  apparently  connected  the  falling-off  in  hi* 
shooting  with  a  general  decay  of  his  powers  ;  his  ill  success  as  a  sportsman 
•was  a  standing  joke  with  his  brethren  of  the  Bench. 


bo  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1841. 

over  genius,  like  an  MS.  of  Cicero's  defaced  by  a  treatise 
on  foolish  traditions.  Mackintosh  applies  to  it  opinionum 
commenta  dclet  dies,  natures  judicia  confirmat.  Some- 
thing of  this  feeling  has  always  made  me  think 
Athens,  or  even  Venice,  decaying  in  their  real  forms,, 
more  interesting  for  a  visit  than  the  Commonwealth 
buried  under  the  fines  of  Emperors  and  Popes.  Did 
Patteson  tell  you  that  Story  has  sent  me,  through  Sum- 
ner,  a  complete  approbation  of  our  proceedings  in  re 
Stockdale — the  more  valuable  because  he  is  entirely 
opposed  to  a  decision  of  ours  of  much  less  importance — 
Decaux  v.  Salvador?  I  was  not  aware  of  his  having  sent 
us  any  work  of  his,  but  in  answer  to  Sumner's  question 
how  he  could  best  repay  English  hospitality,  I  said  : 
'  Come  again  and  bring  Story.' 

"  We  have  invited  and  received  visits  more  than  usual 
— a  fortnight  in  Yorkshire — running  over  the  North 
Riding,  going  into  Notts  for  a  few  days — then  our 
Bishop  came — and  last  week  Tindall,  with  his  sister  and 
niece,  enjoyed  himself  with  our  few  amusements  in  a 
most  delightful  manner." 

*  A  marine  insurance  case,  in  which  the  question  was,  whether  there  can 
be  a  "  total  loss"  of  part  of  a  cargo,  shipped  in  separate  packages,  under 
an  insurance  on  so  many  packages  ;  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  held  in 
the  negative,  the  American  Courts  in  the  affirmative. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

LORD  CARDIGAN'S  CASE — CAPTAIN  DENMAN  AND  THE 
BARRACOONS — GREAT  YORK  ASSIZE,  SUMMER,  1842. 

A.  D.  1841,  1842.    JET.  62,  63. 

AT  the  commencement  of  1841,  a  change  took  place 
in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  by  the  retirement 
of  Mr.  Justice  Littledale,  then  in  the   seventy- 
fourth  year  of  his  age,  and  the  substitution  in  his  place 
of  Mr.  Justice  Wightman. 

In  one  of  Denman's  letters  to  Coleridge,  written  in 
the  Long  Vacation  of  1840,  there  is  the  following  refer- 
ence to  Littledale's  intended  retirement : 

"Tom  [the  present  Lord  Denman]  was  expressly  told 
by  Littledale  that  he  should  resign  before  next  term 
[Michaelmas  Term,  1840].  But  in  answer  to  a  letter 
from  me,  which  might  very  fairly  have  led  to  explana- 
tion, he  says  no  such  thing,  but  rather  studiously,  I 
think,  avoids  the  topic.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  is: 
'  My  health  is  tolerable,  not  quite  perfect,  and  with 
rather  a  tendency  to  be  beginning  to  give  way,  which,  at  my 
time  of  life,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.'  " 

Many  letters  have  been  preserved  which  were  written 
on  this  subject  to  Denman  by  this  excellent  and  simple- 
minded  judge,  who,  with  few  mental  resources  beyond 
the  range  of  the  profession,  and  with  the  keenest  relish 
for  the  subtleties  of  legal  argument,  was  naturally 
reluctant  to  quit  the  judgment  seat  which  had  so  long 
been  adorned  by  his  learning  and  acuteness.  At  length, 
warned  by  increasing  infirmities,  he  sent  in  his  resigna- 
tion at  the  end  of  Hilary  Term  (January  31),  1841.  He 
did  not  long  survive  his  retirement,  dying  at  his  house, 
in  Bedford  Square,  on  June  26,  1842,  in  the  seventy-sixth 
year  of  his  age.1 

1  See  his  life  in  Foss's  "  Lives  of  the  Judges,"  vol.  ix.  p.  220. 


pc  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1841— 

His  successor  was  Sir  William  Wight  man,  who,  in 
modesty  and  learning,  equaled  the  retiring  judge,  but 
who,  as  stated  in  an  admirable  memoir  communicated 
to  Foss's  "  Lives  of  the  Judges"  by,  it  is  believed,  Sir 
J.  T.  Coleridge,  "  brought  with  him  a  greater  knowledge 
of  mankind,  and  habits  of  more  prompt  decision."  To 
the  last  day  of  his  life  (for  he  died  in  harness)  Sir  W. 
Wightman  continued,  for  nearly  three-and-twenty 
years,  to  discharge  his  duties  as  a  judge  with  ever- 
increasing  satisfaction  to  the  profession  and  the  public. 
He  was  carried  off  at  York,  in  1863,  while  attending  the 
Northern  Circuit,  by  an  attack  of  apoplexy,  in  the 
eightieth  year  of  his  age.  His  great  learning,  sound 
reasoning  faculty,  and  lucid  style  of  expression  (as 
especially  shown  in  the  preparation  of  written  judg- 
ments) were  of  great  service  to  Lord  Denman,  who  had 
the  highest  appreciation  of  his  estimable  qualities  and 
ready  helpfulness.  As  stated  by  the  writer  of  the 
memoir  already  referred  to,  "  he  served  with  three 
Chief  Justices  in  succession  (Denman,  Campbell,  Cock- 
burn),  and  I  believe  there  was  not  one  of  them  who 
did  not  feel  and  gratefully  acknowledge  the  value  of 
his  effective  assistance,  always  zealously  and  never 
ostentatiously  rendered.1' ' 

On  February  16,  1841,  Lord  Denman  (who,  owing  to 
the  illness  of  the  Chancellor,  had  been  requested  by 
Lord  Melbourne  to  do  so)  presided  as  Lord  High  Stew- 
ard at  the  trial  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  Earl  of 
Cardigan,  charged  with  having  wounded,  in  a  duel  fought 
at  Wimbledon,  on  September  12,  1840,  a  gentleman 
described  in  the  indictment  as  Harvey  Garnett  Phipps 
Tuckett. 

The  Attorney-General,  Sir  John  (afterwards  Lord) 
Campbell,  conducted  the  case  for  the  Crown,  and  Sir 
William  Follett  was  the  leading  counsel  for  Lord  Car- 
digan. 

The  case  for  the  Crown  was  so  carelessly  got  up  that 
there  was  an  absolute  failure  to  give  strict  proof,  such  as 
the  English  Criminal  Law  then  required  (and  would, 

1  Foss's  "  Lives  of  the  Judges,"  vol.  ix.  pp.  292-300.  Sir  W.  Wightman 
was  born  A.  D.  1784  ;  University  College,  Oxford,  and  Michell  Fellow  of 
Queen's  College,  1806  ;  many  years  a  special  pleader ;  called  to  Bar,  1821  ; 
nevor  took  silk  ;  Judge  of  Queen's  Bench,  1841  ;  died  1863. 


1842.]  LORD     CARDIGAN'S    CASE.  91 

probably,  notwithstanding  Lord  Campbell's  Act,  still  re- 
quire) that  the  person  named  in  the  indictment  was  the 
same  as  the  person  whose  bodily  injuries  were  the  sub- 
•  ject  of  inquiry. 

A  certain  number  of  witnesses  had,  on  September  12, 
1840,  seen  a  gentleman  fired  at  by  Lord  Cardigan,  and 
afterwards  lying  wounded  on  the  ground  where  the  duel 
had  just  taken  place,  and  some  of  these  witnesses  had 
subsequently  seen  the  same  gentleman  lying  wounded 
in  lodgings  at  Hamilton  Place,  said  to  belong  to 
a  Captain  Tuckett  ;  but  none  of  these  witnesses 
could  prove  that  the  name  of  the  wounded  gentleman 
was,  as  laid  in  the  indictment,  Harvey  Garnett  Phipps 
Tuckett. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  Mr.  Codd,  an  army  agent,  proved 
that  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  paying  half-pay  to  a 
captain  of  the  nth  Light  Dragoons,  whose  name  he 
knew  to  be  Harvey  Garnett  Phipps  Tuckett;  but  Mr. 
Codd  had  never  been  taken,  as  he  ought  to  have  been, 
to  Hamilton  Place  to  identify  the  officer  there  lying 
wounded  with  the  Harvey  Garnett  Phipps  Tuckett  tc 
whom  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  making  payments; 
nor  was  the  wounded  officer  himself  produced,  as  he 
might  and  ought  to  have  been,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  so 
as  to  have  been  then  and  there  identified  by  both 
classes  of  witnesses. 

Upon  this  state  of  facts,  Lord  Denman,  as  High 
Steward,  was  obliged  to  tell  the  Peers,  as  he  did  tell 
them,  that  there  was  an  absolute  want  of  strict  proof  to 
connect  the  individual  at  whom  the  shot  was  fired,  and 
who  was  afterwards  seen  wounded  in  Hamilton  Place, 
with  the  half-pay  officer  known  to  Mr.  Codd  as  bearing 
the  names  of  Harvey  Garnett  Phipps  Tuckett,  set  forth 
in  the  indictment. 

"  There  were,"  said  his  lordship,  "  two  distinct  lines 
of  testimony,  and  they  never  met  at  the  same  point." 

The  Lord  High  Steward  did  not  fail  to  point  out  that 
proper  proof  would  have  been  easy.  Their  lordships' 
order  might  have  been  obtained  for  the  appearance  of 
Captain  Tuckett  at  the  bar,  when  the  witnesses  for  the 
duel  would  have  deposed  to  his  having  been  the  person 
wounded  on  the  field ;  and  Mr.  Codd  could  then  have 


9*  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1841— 

identified  him  as  the  person  whom  he  knew  by  the  four 
names  set  forth  in  the  indictment. 

"  It  seems  too  much,"  said  Lord  Denman,"  to  require 
that  your  Lordships  should  volunteer  the  presumption 
of  a  fact,  which,  if  true,  might  have  been  made  clear  and 
manifest  by  the  shortest  and  simplest  process."1 

The  Peers,  acting  on  the  view  of  the  law  laid  down 
by  the  Lord   High    Steward,  unanimously  pronounced' 
Lord   Cardigan   not  guilty,  and  he  was  forthwith  dis- 
charged. 

There  can  not  be  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  Lord 
Denman  was  perfectly  correct  in  his  exposition  of  the 
law,  but  one  thing  must  strike  with  wonder  any  one  not 
brought  up  in  habitual  reverence  for  the  highly  artificial 
forms  of  English  criminal  procedure. 

The  attendance  of  Captain  Tuckett,  which  would 
instantly  have  made  the  whole  proof  perfect  and  clear, 
might  have  been  procured  after  a  delay  of  some  three  or 
four  hours.  Why  was  not  this  delay  accorded,  and  the 
missing  link  supplied  by  compelling,  as  the  House 
had  the  power  to  compel,  the  attendance  of  the 
wounded  officer? 

The  only  answer  that  can  be  given  to  this  very  natural 
question,  is  that  English  criminal  procedure  does  not  so 
much  seek  the  discovery  of  truth,  pure  and  simple,  as 
the  discovery  of  truth  according  to  certain  artificial  rules, 
one  of  which  is,  that  the  prosecution  must  come  into 
Court  with  its  case  absolutely  and  entirely  complete  on 
the  day  of  trial,  failing  which  it  shall,  as  a  penalty,  fail 
to  bring  the  charge  home  to  the  prisoner,  who  must  be 
convicted  according  to  the  strict  rules  of  the  legal  game, 
or  not  convicted  at  all — and  that,  too,  however  clear  his 
guilt  may  be — however  manifest  it  may  be  that  his 
escape  arises  solely  from  maladroitness  on  the  part  of 
the  prosecution  in  neglecting  to  have  ready  at  the  ap- 
pointed place  and  time,  the  required  modicum  of  strict 
technical  proof. 

The  good  sense  of  the  country  was  shocked  at  the 
solemn  mockery  of  Lord  Cardigan's  acquittal ;  but  men 
blamed  the  law  for  the  result,  and  not  Lord  Denman, 

1  The  above  is  taken  from  the  Report  of  Lord  Cardigan's  case  in  Town- 
scnd's  "  Modern  State  Trials,"  vol.  i.  pp.  209-243. 


1842.]    DENMAN    AND     THE    BARRACOONS.    93 

who  simply,  as  his  duty  was,  declared  the  law  to  be 
what  he  found  it. 

Another  case  connected  with  a  noble  delinquent,  the 
case  of  Lord  Waldegrave,  was,  on  March  29,  1841, 
brought  by  Lord  Denman  before  the  House  of  Lords, 
in  order  to  clear  himself  from  some  extraordinary  mis- 
representations in  connection  with  it  which  had  appeared 
in  the  public  press. 

The  short  facts  were  these :  Lord  Waldegrave  and 
Captain  Duff  Gordon  had  been  indicted  for  a  violent 
assault  on  a  policeman. 

The  case  was  removed  by  certiorari  into  the  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench,  where  it  came  on  to  be  tried  before  Lord 
Denman. 

Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  who  appeared  for  the  defend- 
ants, withdrew  their  plea  of  not  guilty,  and  pleaded 
guilty,  at  the  same  time  expressing  their  most  sincere 
regret  at  what  had  occurred,  and  their  desire  to  make 
every  possible  apology  and  atonement. 

Lord  Denman  said:  "At  least  they  are  right  now: 
let  their  former  plea  be  withdrawn,  and  a  plea  of  guilty 
be  recorded.  I  hope  the  case  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
admit  of  its  being  settled  by  private  reparation."  "  And 
this,"  said  Lord  Denman,  addressing  the  House  of 
Lords,  "  is  what  has  been  tortured  into  an  order  that  the 
prosecution  should  be  bought  off,  and  the  offenders 
screened  from  justice." 

The  mere  statement  of  the  absurd  calumny  was  suffi- 
cient for  its  refutation,  especially  in  the  case  of  Lord 
Denman,  whose  failing  as  a  judge,  if  failing  he  had,  was 
certainly  not  a  leaning  in  favor  of  aristocratic  delin- 
quents.1 

In  March  of  this  year  (1841)  news  reached  England 
of  the  dashing  exploit  of  Denman's  second  son,  Captain 
(now  admiral)  Joseph  Denman,  in  taking  and  destroying 
a  barracoon  (or  slave  warehouse)  of  the  West  African 
slave  traders,  and  liberating  all  the  slaves  stored  in  it. 

On  November  19,  1840,  Captain  Denman,  then  in 
command  of  the  "  Wanderer,"  proceeded  to  the  Gallinas 
River,  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  and,  having  landed 

1  See  this  matter  reported  in  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ivii.  p. 
651,  et  seq. 


94  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1841— 

a  sufficient  force  for  the  purpose,  took  military  posses- 
sion of  a  barracoon  filled  with  chained  negroes,  and  on 
November  23,  having,  in  the  meantime,  made  a  short 
treaty  with  the  native  chief  of  the  Gallinas,  obtaining 
his  permission  for  the  destruction  of  the  slave  factory, 
and  leaving  to  the  chief  the  benefit  of  all  the  merchan- 
dise stored  therein,  he  burnt  the  baTacoon  and  carried 
away  all  the  slaves,  about  900  in  number,  to  Sierra 
Leone,  where,  under  the  protection  of  England,  they 
helped  to  form  a  colony  of  free  negroes. 

Denman  was.  with  reason,  very  proud  of  his  son's 
achievement,  and  extremely  sanguine  as  to  the  effect 
which  he  trusted  it  would  produce  in  discouraging  the 
infernal  traffic,  an  effect  which  it  did  produce  in  a  very 
great  degree,  and  would  have  produced  in  a  much 
greater  degree  but  for  the  subsequent  chicanery  of 
the  lawyers,  and  the  timorous  over-caution  of  Lord 
Aberdeen  when  Foreign  Minister  in  Peel's  administra- 
tion. 

The  Captain,  in  a  letter  dated  "Christmas  Day,  1840, 
off  Sierra  Leone,"  had  communicated  to  his  father,  with 
sailor-like  brevity,  the  facts  above  stated,  adding  some 
horrible  details  as  to  the  way  in  which  the  wretched 
slaves  were  found  stored  in  long  rows  in  the  barracoon, 
chained,  some  neck  to  neck,  others  leg  to  leg,  and  others 
arm  to  arm.  A  copy  of  this  letter  Denman,  early  in 
March,  1841,  sent  to  his  sons  George  and  Lewis,  then 
both  at  Cambridge,  adding  the  following  explanations, 
which  set  in  a  still  clearer  light  the  disinterested  gallantry 
of  Captain  Denman's  exploit : 

"  There  is  something  very  noble  in  Joe's  conduct. 
The  profits  of  the  Anti-Slave  Trade  enterprises  depend 
on  the  number  of  slaves  taken  on  board  the  pirate 
cruisers ;  Government  allowing  £$  a  head  for  every  negro 
so  taken.  The  British  captain's  interest,  therefore,  is  to 
allow  the  negroes  to  be  shipped  and  then  capture  them. 
But  this  proceeding  is  attended  with  infinite  suffering  to 
the  slaves  ;  and  they  are  thrown  overboard,  if  there  is  a 
chase,  to  lighten  the  vessel.  By  preventing  the  empty 
vessel  from  receiving  the  unfortunate  negroes,  all  this 
misery  and  murder  is  saved;  but  then  the  prize  is 
scarcely  of  any  value.  Again,  these  barracoons  at  Galli- 


1842.]    DENMAN    AND     THE    BARRACOONS.     95 

na.s  contains  multitudes  who  could  be  shipped  off  at  a 
moment's  notice,  and  so  make  the  prize  valuable.  But, 
by  destroying  the  barracoons,  the  fund  of  slavery  itself 
is  destroyed,  but  the  British  cruisers  get  nothing  by  it. 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  heaviest  blow  that 
has  ever  been  aimed  at  the  nefarious  traffic  has  been 
struck  by  your  brother.  There  may  possibly  be  some 
irregularity,  but  Lord  John  [Russell]  has  written  me  his 
congratulations  on  '  Joe's  '  spirited  and  successful  con- 
duct ;  and  Lord  Minto  tells  me  that  Lord  Palmerston 
thinks  the  whole  affair  entirely  justifiable." 

It  is  highly  to  the  credit  of  Lord  Palmerston  and 
Lord  John  Russell,  then  respectively  Foreign  and 
Colonial  Ministers  in  the  second  administration  of  Lord 
Melbourne,  that  they  lost  no  time  in  approving  and 
ratifying  this  gallant  act  of  the  young  officer. 

The  Foreign  Office  communication  to  the  Admiralty 
was  dated  April  6,  1841,  and  ran  as  follows: 

"  I  am  to  request  you  will  state  to  the  Lords  Com- 
missioners of  the  Admiralty,  that  Lord  Palmerston  is  of 
opinion  that  the  conduct  of  Captain  Denman  in  his 
proceedings  against  the  slave  factories  at  the  Gallinas 
ought,  to  be  approved ;  and  I  am  to  add  that  Lord 
Palmerston  would  recommend  that  similar  operations 
should  be  executed  against  all  the  piratical  slave  estab- 
lishments which  may  be  met  with  on  parts  of  the  coast 
not  occupied  by  any  civilized  power. 

"The  course  pursued  by  Captain  Denman  seems  best 
adapted  for  attaining  the  object  in  view ;  the  command- 
ing officers  should  endeavor  to  obtain  formal  permission 
from  the  native  chiefs  for  the  destruction  of  the  slave 
factories  within  their  territories,  leaving  to  those  chiefs 
all  the  merchandise  that  may  be  stored  in  them — the 
British  officers  contenting  themselves  with  destroying 
the  factories  and  carrying  to  Sierra  Leone  the  slaves 
that  may  be  found  in  them." 

The  communication  from  the  Colonial  Office  (dated 
April  7,  1841)  was  to  a  similar  effect,  and  contained 
besides  a  request  on  behalf  of  Lord  John  Russell  to  the 
then  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty,  that  he  would  "  move 
the  Lords  Commissioners  to  express  to  Commander 
Denman  the  high  sense  which  Her  Majesty's  Govern- 


96  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.         [1841— 

ment  entertain  of  his  very  spirited  and  able  conduct  at 
the  Gallinas,  and  of  its  important  results  in  the  interests 
of  humanity." 

These  letters,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter,  were  destined 
to  be  of  the  greatest  service  to  Captain  Denman,  when, 
having  been  sued  for  damages  in  a  British  Court  of  Jus- 
tice by  one  of  the  slave  traders  who  was  a  part  owner  of 
the  demolished  barracoon,  and  four  British  Judges 
having  refused  to  hold  that  slave  trading  was  piracy  by 
the  law  of  nations,  he  was  driven  to  take  refuge  in  the 
defense  "that  Government,  by  these  letters  of  the  then 
Foreign  and  Colonial  Secretaries,  had,  in  approving  and 
ratifying  his  act,  made  it  their  own,  and  thereby  rendered 
the  Government  (if  any  one),  and  not  Captain  Denman, 
responsible  in  damages  to  the  slave-trading  and  slave- 
owning  plaintiff." 

When,  on  the  fall  of  the  Melbourne  administration 
and  the  accession  to  power  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  Lord 
Aberdeen  became  Foreign  Minister,  a  colder,  tamer, 
and  more  timorous  spirit  prevailed  in  Downing  Street, 
as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  letter  from  Lord 
Aberdeen  to  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty, 
dated  May  20,  1842,  about  a  year  later  than  the 
letters  just  cited  of  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  John 
Russell : 

"  I  beg  to  call  your  attention  to  the  subject  of  the 
instructions  given  to  H.  M.'s  naval  officers  employed 
in  suppressing  the  Slave  Trade  on  the  West  Coast  of 
Africa  : 

"  Her  Majesty's  Advocate-General  has  reported  that 
he  can  not  take  upon  himself  to  advise  that  all  the  pro- 
ceedings described  as  having  taken  place  at  Gallinas,  &c., 
are  strictly  justifiable,  or  that  the  instructions  to  Her 
Majesty's  naval  officers  as  referred  to  in  these  papers 
are  such  as  can  with  perfect  legality  be  carried  into 
execution. 

"  I  would  submit  to  the  consideration  of  your  lord- 
ships that  Her  Majesty's  naval  officers  employed  in  sup- 
pressing the  Slave  Trade  should  be  instructed  to  abstain 
from  destroying  slave  factories  and  carrying  off  persons 
held  in  slavery,  unless  the  Poiver  within  whose  territory 
or  jurisdiction  the  factories  or  slaves  be  found  should  by 


1841.]    DENMAN    AND     THE    BARRACOONS     97 

treaty  with  Great  Britain,  or  formal  agreement  and  treaty 
'with  Her  Majesty's  naval  officer,  have  employed  Her 
Majesty's  naval  forces  to  take  those  steps  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  Slave  Trade." 

Thus  was  the  "  native  hue  of  resolution  sicklied  o'er 
by  the  pale  cast "  of  law,  the  moral  effect  of  Captain 
Denman's  gallant  exploit  materially  impaired,  and  the 
hopes  and  wicked  activity  of  the  slave  traders  revived. 
It  will  be  seen,  hereafter,  how  Lord  Denman,  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  denounced  the  policy  and  set  forth  the 
effects  of  this  ill-judged  and  unfortunate  letter. 

The  veteran  friends  of  the  African  cause,  meanwhile, 
Thomas  Clarkson  and  Fowell  Buxton,  to  whom  Denman 
had  communicated  the  good  news  of  his  son's  achieve- 
ment, were  not  slow  to  congratulate  him  on  it." 

The  letter  from  Fowell  Buxton  runs  thus  : 

"  Brewery,  Spitalfields  ;  March  18,  1841. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — Owing  to  an  accident,  I  did  not  till 
this  moment  receive  the  news  of  your  son's  most  glorious 
exploit.  I  must  allow  myself  the  pleasure  of  offering 
my  most  hearty  congratulations  to  your  lordship,  and  of 
adding  that  if  anything  could  increase  my  satisfaction  at 
the  (as  I  hope)  fatal  blow  which  has  been  struck  at  the 
Slave  Trade  on  that  part  of  the  coast,  it  is  that  the 
honor  of  the  achievement  devolves  on  the  son  of  one 
who  was  a  faithful  friend  of  the  negro  when  the  herd  of 
politicians  stood  aloof  from  the  cause. 

"  Believe  me,  my  dear  Lord, 

"  Your  faithful  servant, 

"  T.  FOWELL  BUXTON." 

A  little  later  the  venerable  Clarkson  writes  as 
follows : 

"  Playford  Hall:  March  29,  1841. 

"  My  Lord, — I  feel  very  grateful  to  you,  not  only  for 
your  letter  of  March  20,  but  for  the  newspaper  which 
accompanied  it,  and  also  for  the  House  of  Commons 
papers  on  the  same  subject,  received  yesterday. 

"  I  congratulate  you  on  the  well-planned  success  of 
your  son,  who  has  acquitted  himself  with  so  much  credit 
to  himself,  and  with  such  beneficial  service  to  the  great 
cause  of  humanity, 

"  I  am  sure  that  he  has  struck  the  greatest  blow  that 
n.— 7 


98  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1841— 

has  ever  been  given  to  the  Slave  Trade  on  the  West 
Coast  of  Africa,  either  within  my  memory  or  on  record, 
and  its  influence  will  be  felt  in  different  places,  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  world.  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  it 
had  a  tendency  completely  to  destroy  the  Slave  Trade 
for  a  while  in  the  neighboring  countries  to  the  Gallinas. 
The  slave  hunter  will  now  have  for  some  time  no  mar- 
ket to  pay  him  for  his  plunder.  The  slave  agents 
(Portuguese  or  Spanish)  will  be  in  fear  for  their  respec- 
tive factories,  lest  those  also  should  be  burnt  or  de- 
stroyed. But  what  is  the  best  feature  iti  the  prospect  is 
that  it  will  do  still  more  in  Cuba,  now  the  greatest  slave 
mart  in  the  world.  After  the  loss  of  seven  or  eight 
ships,  and  of  two  beaten  off,  whose  voyages  must  be 
greatly  spoiled,  and  after  the  immense  loss  of  goods  in 
the  slave  factories  in  Africa,  will  not  the  people  of  Cuba 
be  thunderstruck,  will  they  not  pause,  and  pause  a  good 
while,  before  they  will  venture  to  send  articles  of  traffic 
to  be  kept  in  store  for  the  purchase  of  future  slaves  ? 

"  But,  my  Lord,  I  am  too  ill  at  this  moment  to  dwell 
on  these  future  prospects.  Only  let  me  advise  you,  when 
you  write  to  your  son,  to  put  him  on  his  guard  relative 
to  retaliation.  I  have  known  these  bloodthirsty  mon- 
sters— the  white  agents  of  the  slave  traders  in  Africa — 
for  57  years.  They  will  stick  at  nothing  for  revenge,  nor 
should  I  wonder  if  they  were  to  stir  up  the  native  chiefs 
in  the  bordering  territories  to  take  part  in  their  quarrel, 
to  come  down  with  overwhelming  force  on  Gallinas 
itself,  and  make  the  king  pay  dear  for  the  destruction  of 
the  factories. 

"  I  am,  my  Lord,  with  great  respect  and  esteem, 
"  Your  sincere  friend, 

"  THOMAS  CLARKSON. 

"  P.S.  I  have  this  day  entered  into  the  82nd  year  of 
my  age,  and  alas !  am  not  fit  to  help  the  sacred  cause 
much  longer.  I  hope  when  you  have  time  you  will  read 
my  last  book,  the  last  I  shall  ever  be  able  to  write,  on 
account  of  age  and  infirmities."  ' 

Denman,  who  always  kept  up  a  correspondence  with 

1  The  handwriting  of  this  letter  is  small,  neat,  perfectly  legible,  without 
the  slightest  sign  of  age  or  debility.  Clarkson  lived  five  years  after  this, 
not  dying  till  1846,  in  his  Syth  year. 


i84i.J    DEN  MAN    AND     THE    BARRACOONS. 


99 


the  United  States,  received,  this  spring,  from  the  accom- 
plished Charles  Summer  (who,  in  a  recent  visit  to  Eng- 
land had  seen  much  of  the  Chief  Justice),  a  letter  con- 
taining some  interesting  references  to  the  celebrated 
Judge  Story. 

"  Boston,  April  15,  1841. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — I  owe  you  many  thanks  for  your 
kind  letter  of  September  29th,  written  from  your 
country  retreat.  Judge  Story  was  much  gratified  by  the 
flattering  terms  in  which  you  alluded  to  him.  He  loves 
England  and  her  jurisprudence.  Whether  he  will  ever 
summon  the  resolution  to  leave  his  family  and  encounter 
a  sea-voyage,  shortened  as  it  has  been  by  steam,  that  he 
may  see  with  his  own  eyes  what  interests  him  so  much 
in  your  country,  I  can  not  tell.  He  is  now  61,  and  his 
time  is  constantly  occupied  by  his  judicial  duties  and 
self-imposed  labors  as  professor  and  author.  He  has 
just  published  a  second  edition  of  his  '  Conflict  of  Laws,' 
with  extensive  additions,  a  copy  of  which  he  is  desirous 
of  forwarding  by  some  proper  channel  for  your  accept- 
ance. 

"  Mr.  Stevenson,  our  minister  in  London,  will  be  imme- 
diately recalled.  It  is  not  yet  known  who  will  be  his 
successor.  Judge  Story  has  been  spoken  of,  but  it  is 
not  probable  that  he  will  be  permitted  to  leave  the 
Bench.  I  trust  the  rumors  of  war  will  cease.  We  are 
all  for  peace.  I  have  great  confidence  in  the  discretion, 
good  sense,  and  desire  of  peace  which  animate  the 
rulers  of  both  countries.  A  war  between  us  would  be 
fratricidal.  Perhaps  I  may  say  that  we  are  both  able  to 
do  each  other  incalculable  mischief.  But  we  will  not 
have  a  war.  I  cry  out  with  Lord  Falkland  in  the  Civil 
War— 'Peace!  Peace!' 

"  I  remember  England  with  the  strongest  affection, 
and  am,  with  the  highest  regard,  dear  Lord  Denman, 

"  Most  faithfully  yours, 

"CHARLES   SUMNER." 

In  May,  1841,  Denman  was  called  upon  to  preside  at 
the  4OOth  anniversary  festival  of  Eton  College  (founded 
by  Henry  VI.,  A.  D.  1441). 

Among  the  Etonians  present  on  this  occasion  (little 
short  of  300  in  number)  were  his  old  friend  and  son-in- 


too  LIFE    OF    LORD     DEN  MAN         [1841— 

law,  Hodgson,  then  Provost,  his  equally  old  friend, 
Launcelot  Shadwell,  then  Vice-Chancellor  of  England, 
and  his  deeply  esteemed  brethren  on  the  Bench,  Patte- 
son  and  Coleridge. 

Denman,  as  might  have  been  expected,  made  a  first- 
rate  chairman,  and  the  whole  affair  went  off  brilliantly  ; 
but  nothing,  perhaps,  in  connection  with  it  gave  him 
more  pleasure  than  the  following  letter,  from  that  illus- 
trious old  Etonian,  the  venerable  Marquis  of  Wellesley, 
then  in  his  eighty-second  year,1  who,  from  age  and  in- 
firmity, had  been  reluctantly  compelled  to  decline  the 
chair  on  the  present  occasion. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — If  I  could  receive  any  consolation 
for  the  affliction  which  deprives  me  of  the  happiness  of 
accepting  the  high  honor  offered  to  me  on  this  occasion 
by  my  beloved  and  revered  fellow-scholars  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Eton,  it  would  be  afforded  by  their  happy  choice 
of  your  Lordship  to  fill  the  place  originally  destined  for 
me  by  their  kindness  and  favor.  That  choice,  indeed,  is 
not  more  honorable  to  the  object  of  it  than  to  me,  and 
to  those  who  manifested  so  much  judgment  in  making 
it.  Your  Lordship's  great  name  well  becomes  the  four 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  that  noble  and 
illustrious  institution,  now  in  the  full  zenith  of  fame  and 
glory,  and  which,  through  its  whole  course  of  splendor, 
displays  no  brighter  spot  than  that  character,  shining  in 
the  exercise  of  the  highest  judicial  functions,  and 
recently  displayed  with  additional  luster  in  the  exalted 
station  of  Lord  High  Steward.  The  chair  of  the  Eton 
meeting  has  not  yet  been  filled  by  equal  rank  and 
dignity.  May  Providence  favor  us  with  a  result  equally 
auspicious  !  and  may  this  great  assemblage  of  the  pro- 
duce of  Eton,  tend  to  strengthen,  to  cultivate,  and  to 
perpetuate  the  national  benefits  which  this  glorious 
empire  has  derived  through  successive  ages,  in  every 
department  of  the  State  and  of  the  country,  from  this 
parental  source  of  wisdom,  religion,  and  happiness !  It 
would  be  vain  at  this  day  for  me  to  make  professions  of 
my  attachment  to  the  interests  and  prosperity  of  Eton. 

1  The  Marquis  of  Wellesley,  born  in  1760  (nine  years  before  his  still 
more  famous  Brother,  the  Great  Duke);  died  in  1842 — ten  years  before 
him. 


1842.]    MOXON'S  CASE— SHELLEY'S  POEMS.      101 

My  whole  fame,  my  whole  character,  whatever  success 
has  attended  my  life,  whatever  I  am  now,  whatever  I 
can  hope  to  be  hereafter,  are  all  drawn  from  that  (to  me 
sacred  and  hallowed)  spring.  I  trust  that  I  have  not 
been  untrue  to  the  lessons  which  I  received  from  all 
my  preceptors  at  that  place,  but  more  especially  from 
Dr.  Jonathan  Davies  and  Dr.  Norbury,  both  eminent 
scholars,  but  whose  memory  is  more  endeared  to  me  by 
their  constant  and  assiduous  care  to  assist  and  encourage 
me  in  the  true  course  of  seeking  ingenuous  and  honest 
fame  by  diligent  and  attentive  study. 

"  To  the  memory  of  a  more  exalted  personage  I  am 
bound,  on  this  occasion,  to  pay  an  humble  but  most 
ardently  grateful  tribute  of  gratitude,  veneration,  and 
dutiful  affection — to  our  deceased  Sovereign,  George  the 
Third,  the  great  and  constant  patron  of  Eton,  whose 
patronage  and  favor  animated  and  encouraged  me  and 
all  Eton  in  our  labors,  and  by  his  gracious  presence  and 
countenance,  rendered  all  our  exertions  public,  and  the 
distinctions  we  severally  gained  almost  national. 

"  I  felt  this  truly  royal  act  as  a  new  spirit,  urging  me 
to  all  that  was  praiseworthy.  I  can  not  forbear  from 
mentioning  it.  To  this  hour  I  feel  all  its  animation  ; 
nor  can  I  conclude  with  a  wish  and  prayer  nearer  to  my 
heart,  nor  one  of  which  the  fulfillment  would  be  more 
beneficial  to  Eton  and  to  the  empire,  than  that  all 
future  Sovereigns  may  extend  a  similar  protection  to 
our  beloved  parent,  and  give  a  similar  countenance  to 
her  prosperity  and  glory. 

"  Believe  me  always,  my  dear  Lord,  with  true  respect, 
esteem,  gratitude,  and  affection,  your  faithful  and  obliged 
servant,  "  WELLESLEY. 

"  Kingston  House :  May  22,  1841." 

In  the  summer  of  1841,  a  case  of  some  interest  to  the 
literary  world  came  before  the  Chief  Justice  at  West- 
minster— the  prosecution  of  Moxon,  the  well-known 
publisher,  for  blasphemy,  in  having  brought  out  the 
whole  of  Shelley's  poems,  including  the  "  Queen  Mab." 

The  case  was  brilliantly  defended  by  Talfourd.  Lord 
Denman  told  the  jury  that,  as  the  law  stood,  they  must 
find  against  the  publisher  if  they  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  published  with  the  intent  alleged. 


102  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  1841— 

"  How  far  it  might,  in  general,  be  expedient  to  have 
recourse  to  prosecution  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing 
such  publications  was,"  he  said,  "  a  question  to  be  consid- 
ered by  those  who  had  the  right  and  the  power  of  insti- 
tuting such  proceedings. 

"  For  himself,  he  was  of  opinion  that  the  best  and 
most  efficacious  method  of  acting  with  respect  to 
such  publications,  was  to  proceed  by  way  of  argument 
or  reasoning  :  they  would  be  more  effectually  suppressed 
or  neutralized  by  confuting  the  sentiments  themselves 
than  by  prosecuting  the  authors  of  them."  1 

The  verdict  of  the  jury  was  for  the  Crown,  but  Mr. 
Moxon  was  never  called  up  for  judgment. 

It  had  long  been  clear  to  all  accustomed  to  read  the 
political  signs  of  the  times,  that  the  second  Melbourne 
administration  was  tottering  to  its  fall.  The  dissolution 
which  took  place  on  June  23,  1841,  served  only  to  pre- 
cipitate its  ruin,  and  show  the  strength  and  extent  of 
the  Conservative  reaction. 

The  new  Parliament  met  on  Thursday,  August  19 ; 
the  Queen's  speech  was  delivered  on  the  24th,  and  on 
Saturday  the  28th,  after  a  four  nights'  debate  on  the 
Address,  there  was  a  majority  in  the  Commons  against 
the  ministry  of  91,  the  ayes  being  269  and  the  noes 
360. 

On  the  next  Monday,  August  30,  Lord  Melbourne  in 
the  Lords,  and  Lord  John  Russell  in  the  Commons,  an- 
nounced the  resignation  of  the  Cabinet,  and  Sir  Robert 
Peel  proceeded  to  form  the  memorable  administration 
which,  after  a  five  years'  tenure  of  power,  was  broken  up 
in  1846,  by  the  party  schisms  arising  out  of  the  abolition 
of  the  Corn  Laws. 

The  succeeding  year,  1842,  was  a  busy  one  with  Den- 
man,  both  in  the  House  and  on  circuit. 

On  the  first  occasion  of  his  addressing  the  Lords  (Feb- 
ruary 14,  1842),  on  the  question  raised  by  the  case  of 
the  "  Creole,"  as  to  the  principles  of  international  law 
regulating  the  practice  on  claims  of  extradition,  Den- 
m;.n  took  the  opportunity  of  paying  a  high  and  de- 
strved  compliment  to  the  illustrious  jurists  of  the  United 
States.  He  said : 

1  From  The  Times  report  of  the  case. 


1842.]    LETTER  FROM  CHANCELLOR  KENT.     103 

"  The  opinions  he  had  cited  were  not  confined  to  the 
lawyers  of  Europe  :  the  great  lawyers  of  America — men 
distinguished  by  their  profound  erudition,  whose  decis- 
ions were  so  highly  respected  amongst  us,  and  whose 
valuable  works  on  great  legal  points  are  consulted  in 
this  country  with  the  highest  advantage — held  the  same 
doctrine." ' 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  Denman  received  the 
following  gratifying  letter  from  the  greatest  of  the  great 
lawyers  of  whom  he  had  thus  spoken  with  just  apprecia- 
tion, the  venerable  Chancellor  Kent,  who,  together  with 
the  letter,  transmitted  -to  the  English  Chief  Justice  a 
copy  of  the  fourth  edition  of  his  "  Commentaries:" 

"  New  York  \  March  30,  1842. 

"  My  Lord, — I  beg  leave  to  present  to  your  Lord- 
ship the  fourth  edition  of  my  '  Commentaries  on  Ameri- 
can Law,'  as  I  perceive  that  your  Lordship  has  done  me 
the  honor  repeatedly  to  allude  to  the  work. 

"  I  have  long  wished  for  a  fit  occasion  to  express  in 
some  personal  way  my  profound  respect  and  veneration 
for  the  character  of  the  Judges  of  the  Courts  at  West- 
minster, and  especially  my  sense  of  the  distinguished 
ability  with  which  your  Lordship  presides  over  the 
Court  of  Queen's  Bench.  This  letter,  I  hope,  will 
be  deemed  a  pardonable  intrusion.  I  never  had  the 
honor  of  a  personal  acquaintance,  or  of  any  correspond- 
ence whatever  with  any  judicial  character  in  England, 
yet  my  familiarity  with  the  English  law  and  the  decis- 
ions of  the  English  Courts  for  the  last  half  century, 
makes  me  feel  as  if  I  was  on  this  occasion  in  some  degree 
addressing  a  companion. 

"  I  am  now  far  advanced  in  the  seventy-ninth  year  of 
my  age,  and  though  I  am,  as  I  always  have  been,  healthy 
and  active,  I  am  not  without  gentle  admonitions  of  late 
of  my  very  advanced  life. 

"  As  I  retired  from  the  New  York  Court  of  Chancery 
at  the  age  of  sixty,  the  '  Commentaries  '  are  the  fruit  of 
my  subsequent  leisure,  and,  together  with  chamber  busi- 
ness, have  given  me  sufficient  occupation  ever  since ; 
and  I  may  truly  add,  as  a  fact  pleasant  to  be  known,  that 
the  last  eighteen  years  of  my  life  have  afforded  me 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ix.  p.  322. 


104  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1841— 

the   most   agreeable   and   the   most   profitable  employ-' 
merit. 

"  With  my  best  wishes  for  your  Lordship's  continued 
health  and  happiness,  and  with  the  highest  respect  and 
esteem, 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  subscribe  myself, 

'•  Your  Lordship's  most  obedient  servant, 

"  JAMES  KENT." 

On  March  8,  1842,  the  Chief  Justice,  carrying  into  act 
the  ideas  which  eighteen  years  before  he  had  embodied 
in  his  able  article  on  the  defects  of  our  Law  of  Evidence, 
in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review,"  rose  to  move  the  second 
reading  of  his  bill  for  amending  the  Law  of  Evidence 
by  preventing  the  exclusion  of  testimony  on  the  ground 
of  incompetency  from  interest  or  from  previous  conviction. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  advert  at  any  length  to  the 
arguments  which  Lord  Denman,  in  his  very  able  speech, 
addressed  to  the  House.  None  now  would  attempt  to 
gainsay  them  :  the  difficulty  rather  is  to  go  back  in 
thought  to  a  state  of  legal  opinion  in  which  it  would  be 
necessary  gravely  to  adduce  such  arguments  to  any 
deliberative  assembly.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  Chief 
Justice,  by  his  clear  and  able  address,  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing even  the  House  of  Lords  of  that  day  of  the  truth 
of  the  great  principles  long  since  laid  down  by  Bentham, 
viz.,  that  all  persons,  whether  interested  or  not,  or 
whether  previously  convicted  of  crime  or  not,  should  be 
allowed  to  give  their  evidence,  leaving  it  to  the  jury  to 
estimate  its  value. 

The  bill  embodying  this  great  and  rational  improve- 
ment in  the  English  Law  of  Evidence,  passed  the  House 
of  Lords  on  June  8,  1842,  though  it  did  not  receive  the 
Royal  assent  till  August  22,  1843,  when  it  became  part 
and  parcel  of  the  law  of  the  land,  as  the  Act  6  and  7 
Vic.  c.  85.1 

After  presiding  for  the  Spring  Assizes  of  1842  on  the 
Home  Circuit,  Lord  Denman  spent  a  few  days  of  the 
Easter  Vacation  at  Stony  Middleton,  whence  he  wrote 
the  following  letter  to  his  fourth  daughter,  Margaret, 
(now  the  honorable  Mrs.  Cropper),  who,  in  the  summer 

1  For  Lord  Denman's  speech  on  the  second  reading,  see  Hansard,  Parl. 
Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixi,  p.  208,  et  seq. 


1842. J         LETTER     TO    MRS.     CROPPER.  105 

of  the  preceding  year,  had  married,  as  her  first  hus- 
band, Mr.  Henry  William  Macaulay,  brother  of  the 
celebrated  Thomas  Babington  (afterwards  Lord) 
Macaulay. 

"  Middleton  :  April  5,  1842. 

"  My  dearest  Margaret, —  Even  if  I  had  not  vowed  my 
first  leisure  to  you,  everything  here  brings  you  to  my 
mind,  especially  during  the  last  year,  from  our  short  visit 
twelve  months  ago  to  witness  the  first  effect  of  the  im- 
provements, to  the  happy  meeting  at  breakfast  on  the 
lawn,  on  a  morning  even  more  brilliant  than  this,  when 
your  happy  letters  announced  the  most  important  event 
of  your  life — the  most  important,  and,  of  course,  if 
happy,  the  happiest  to  yourself  and  all  to  whom  you  are 
dear.  What  a  joyful  thing  to  me  to  hear  from  yourself, 
and  from  all  around  you,  that  that  union  of  hearts  and 
minds,  without  which  the  most  prosperous  circumstances 
are  of  no  value,  secures  your  enjoyment  of  the  greatest 
blessing  of  life  in  every  lot  that  can  befall  you. 

"  You  will  think  this  romantic  effusion  the  result  of 
long  premeditation  on  the  promised  letter,  but  it  really 
flows  from  me  spontaneously  the  moment  I  sit  down  to 
think  of  you  and  look  on  this  beautiful  scene.  I  hope 
you  will  both  see  it  in  its  most  favorable  season  this 
year,  and  to  much  more  advantage  than  either  of  you 
have  seen  it  yet.  We  left  Cubley  (Rev.  R.  Vevers' 
living,  near  Ashburn)  yesterday  under  a  lowering  sky. 
The  day  was  dismal  from  Ashburn  to  Bakewell,  but  when 
we  approached  our  own  district,  the  valley  of  Derwent 
was  filled  with  broad  sunshine,  and  our  own  trees  and 
turf  most  splendid.  The  Captain  [his  son  Joseph] 
is  pleased  with  our  improvements  generally,  and  my 
Lady  and  the  two  girls  [Ann  and  Caroline]  in  joyous 
spirits." 

Denman,  in  May,  1842,  succeeded  in  prevailing  upon 
the  great  historian,  Hallam,  to  take  the  chair  at  the  Eton 
anniversary  dinner  for  that  year.  He  thus  intimates  to 
his  son-in-law,  Hodgson,  the  Provost,  his  nct'on  that 
Hallam  might  consent  if  applied  to: 

"  Westminster  Hall :  May  2,  1842. 

"  My  dear  Hodgson, — Meeting  Hallam  at  the  Royal 
Academy  dinner,  I  thought  him  a  desirable  chairman, 


io6  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1841— 

and  spoke  to  him  about  it.  He  did  not  more  than  half 
decline,  but  rather  appeared  to  be  more  than  half  will- 
ing to  be  pressed.  If  the  College  think  him  most 
desirable,  application  to  him  would,  I  think,  gratify  and 
fix  him." 

At  the  request  of  the  Provost  and  Fellows,  Denman 
wrote  to  Hallam  on  the  subject,  and  received  from  the 
distinguished  historian  the  following  characteristic  note 
of  half-reluctant,  half-gratified  acceptance  : 

"  24  Wilton  Cresent :  May  9,  1842. 

"  Dear  Lord  Denman, — The  proposal  contained  in 
your  note  of  yesterday,  that  I  should  take  the  chair  at 
the  next  anniversary  dinner  of  our  schoolfellows,  is  one 
which  I  can  not  accept  without  reluctance. 

"Nothing,  indeed,  but  a  sense  that  I  ought  not  to 
decline  too  pertinaciously  what  is  pressed  upon  by  one 
whom  I  respect  as  I  do  you,  would  induce  me  to  place 
myself  in  a  position  neither  suited  to  my  years,1  nor,  in 
the  opinion  perhaps  of  many,  to  my  rank,  or  rather  want 
of  rank  in  society.  I  must  also  add  that  the  domestic 
misfortunes  which  have  repeatedly  fallen  on  my  head, 
have  led  to  an  increased  unwillingness  to  stand  forward 
in  the  bustling  scenes  of  life,  and,  in  particular,  I  have 
never  attended  the  Eton  meeting  since  the  loss  of  my 
eldest  son,  nine  years  ago.2  It  has,  indeed,  happened 
that  I  have  been  compelled  to  take  a  more  prominent 
part  than  I  designed,  and  have  had  honors  of  this 
kind  conferred  on  me  which  I  have  little  expected  or 
desired. 

"  I  rely  on  your  having  good  reason  to  believe  that 
my  taking  the  chair  will  not  be  unacceptable  to  the  lead- 
ing Etonians. 

"  I  am,  dear  Lord  Denman, 

"  Very    truly    yours, 

"  HENRY  HALLAM." 

On  June  2,  1842,  Lord  Denman,  renewing  the  attempt 
which  he  had  made  unsuccessfully  in  1838,  laid  on  the 
table  of  the  House  of  Lords  a  bill  "  to  provide  for  the 

1  Hallam  was  then  only  just  turned  of  sixty,  having  been  born  in  1781, 
two  years  after  Denman. 

s  Arthur  Hallam,  the  inspirer  of  Tennyson's  "  In  Memoriam,"  who  died 
in  1833. 


1842.]  OATHS    BILL     OF    1842.  107 

Affirmation  of  persons  having  conscientious  objections 
to  taking  Oaths; 1  and  on  June  27,  he  moved  the  second 
reading  of  his  bill,  in  an  admirable  speech,  the  only  onev 
it  is  believed,  of  his  Parliamentary  discourses  which  he 
revised  for  the  press,  and  caused  to  be  published  in  a 
separate  form.1 

The  bill  encountered  considerable  opposition.  Lord 
Abinger,  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  Common-Law 
Judges,  urged  that  if  persons  professing  to  have  Religious 
scruples  had  an  opportunity  of  giving  evidence  without 
the  sanction  of  an  oath,  there  might  be  many  who,  on 
false  pretense  of  such  scruples,  would  evade  being  sworn. 
Many  of  their  lordships  expressed  the  opinion  that  the 
matter  wanted  further  inquiry ;  and  finally,  on  the 
suggestion  of  the  Bishop  of  London  that  it  would  be 
better  to  refer  the  whole  subject  of  judicial  oaths  and 
affirmations  to  a  Select  Committee,  Lord  Denman, 
though  with  considerable  reluctance,  consented  to  with- 
draw his  bill.8 

The  whole  of  this  excellent  speech  is  reprinted  in  the 
Appendix,4  and  all  readers  who  feel  interested  on  the 
important  subject  to  which  it  relates,  are  earnestly 
recommended  to  peruse  it  there.  Its  arguments  are  so 
close  and  connected,  that  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
to  present  any  passage  apart  from  its  context  without 
impairing  its  force  and  lessening  its  value.  It  is  a  per- 
fect model  of  the  style  in  which  such  questions  should 
be  dealt  with  before  a  high  deliberative  assembly — lucid, 
vigorous,  dignified,  and  convincing. 

Denman  caused  copies  of  this  speech  to  be  sent  to 
several  of  his  friends,  and  amongst  others  to  Sydney 
Smith,  from  whom,  before  the  year  was  out,  he  received 
the  following  characteristic  acknowledgment : 

"Combe  Florey,  Taunton  ;    October  18,  1842. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — I  have  received  your  speech  upon 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb  ,  third  series,  vol.  Ixiii.  p.  1237. 

8  The  report  in  Hansard  is  a  reprint  from  the  corrected  speech.  See 
Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixiv.  pp.  617-627. 

3  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixiv.  p.  655.     Lord  Denman  again 
introduced  a  bill  for  the  same  object,  but  slightly  varied  in  form,  in  1849. 
The  provisions  of  this  bill,  its  rejection,  and  the  present  state  of  the  law  on 
the  subject,  will  fall  to  be  considered  hereafter. 

4  Appendix  No.  V. 


io8  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1841— 

'  Affirmations,'  and,  though  it  is  not  said  so  on  the  white 
leaf,  I  believe  you  sent  it  me ;  or  if  not,  leave  me  in  the 
honorable  delusion. 

"  Your  great  difficulty  is  akin  to  that  of  proving  that 
two  and  two  are  equivalent  to  four.  All  that  the  Legis- 
lature ought  to  inquire,  is,  whether  this  scruple  has  now 
become  so  common  as  to  cause  the  frequent  inter- 
ruption of  justice.  This  admitted,  the  remedy  ought  to 
follow  as  a  matter  of  course.  We  are  to  get  the  best 
evidence  for  discovering  truth — not  the  best  we  can 
imagine,  but  the  best  we  can  procure — and  if  you  can't 
get  oaths  you  must  put  up  with  affirmations,  as  far  better 
than  no  evidence  at  all ;  but  one  is  ashamed  to  descant 
on  such  obvious  truths. 

"  One  obvious  truth,  however,  I  have  always  great 
pleasure  in  descanting  upon,  and  that  is,  that  I  always 
see  the  Chief  Justice  leading  the  way  in  everything  that 
is  brave,  liberal,  and  wise.  I  beg  he  will  accept  my 
best  wishes  and  best  regards.  SYDNEY  SMITH.'" 

A  juster  or  more  dexterous  compliment  was  perhaps 
never  paid. 

In  the  Summer  Assizes  of  1842,  Lord  Denman,  with 
Mr.  Justice  Maule,  went  the  Northern  Circuit,  where  the 
work,  especially  at  York,  was  exceptionally  severe.  It 
was  the  time  of  one  of  the  great  Chartist  risings  in  the 
North,"  and  the  work  of  trying  the  Chartist  rioters,  in 
addition  to  a  very  considerable  number  of  other  pris- 
oners, devolved  on  Lord  Denman  and  his  colleague,  who 
was  then  suffering  very  severely  from  asthma. 

This  was  probably  the  hardest  judicial  labor  that  even 
Lord  Denman  ever  went  through,  and  the  encountering 
it  was  entirely  his  own  voluntary  act,  for  the  Govern- 
ment had  intended  to  try  the  Chartist  prisoners  under  a 
Special  Commission,  as  appears  from  the  following  letter 
of  Sir  James  Graham,  then  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Home  Department. 

"  Whitehall  :  August  19,  1842. 

"  My  dear  Lord  Denman, — Lord  WharnclifFe  writes  me 

1  The  above  is  printed  from  the  original,  in  the  handwriting  of  the  im- 
mortal Sydney;  a  copy  was  made  and  given  to  Lady  Holland  for  insertion 
in  her  charming  memoir  of  her  illustrious  father. 

*  The  one  so  well  told  in  Mr.  Disraeli's  "  Sybil,"  and  Miss  Bronte's 
"  Shirley." 


1842.]       YORK  SUMMER  ASSIZES  OF  1842.  109 

word  that  he  had  addressed  a  letter  to  you,  in  which  he 
has  requested  that  you  will  not  discharge  the  grand  jury, 
with  the  view  of  bringing  to  trial  at  the  present  assizes 
the  prisoners  newly  committed  to  York  Castle. 

"  It  is  not  possible  in  the  present  state  of  affairs  that 
we  should  be  prepared  to  go  to  trial  immediately.  Our 
present  duty  is  to  suppress  the  insurrection  ;  our  future 
endeavor  will  be  to  convict  the  prisoners  now  in  custody, 
when  we  shall  have  had  time  to  sift  the  evidence  and  to 
collect  the  information  we  may  receive.  In  these  cir- 
cumstances, I  hope  you  will  be  disposed  to  leave  the 
prisoners  committed  within  the  last  few  days  for  trial  at 
a  Special  Commission,  which  the  Crown  will  be  disposed 
to  issue,  and  that  you  will  close  the  present  assize  at 
York  in  ordinary  course,  without  reference  to  the 
present  unhappy  circumstances  which  have  so  suddenly 
arisen. 

"  I  have  little  time  to  write  to  you,  and  I  can  not  enter 
more  fully  into  the  subject,  but  Lord  Wharncliffe's  letter 
rendered  this  communication  necessary. 

"  I  am,  my  dear  Lord, 

"  Yours  very  faithfully, 

"  J.  G.  GRAHAM." 

Denman  had  a  very  strong  conviction  that  nothing 
could  so  effectually  tend  to  suppress  the  insurrectionary 
spirit  of  the  North  at  that  time,  as  the  prompt  and 
immediate  trial  of  the  insurgents.  The  enormously  in- 
creased burden  of  work  which  would  thus  be  thrown 
upon  him,  in  addition  to  a  large  list  of  nearly  a  hun- 
dred causes  which  had  come  before  him  for  trial  in  the 
ordinary  course,  had  no  weight  with  him  when  compared 
with  this  consideration.  He  accordingly  wrote  to  the 
Home  Office  that  in  his  opinion  a  Special  Commission 
was  unnecessary,  and  that  he  and  his  colleague  were 
quite  prepared  to  proceed  at  once  to  the  trial  of  the 
Chartists.  The  grand  jury,  which  had  not  been  dis- 
missed, was  accordingly  adjourned  for  a  few  days,  until 
the  evidence  was  prepared  ;  and  within  one  month  from 
the  outbreak,  every  rioter  who  had  been  apprehended 
was  tried.1 

Denman  always  looked  back  with  pleasure  and  just 

1  The  number  of  additional  prisoners  was  about  200. 


no  LIFE     OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1841— 

pride  upon  this  passage  in  his  judicial  career,  rightly  con- 
sidering that  nothing  could  so  powerfully  have  impressed 
the  excited  mind  of  the  populace  as  this  prompt  and 
vigorous  assertion  of  the  power  of  the  law.  The  effect, 
too,  as  he  had  correctly  calculated,  was  more  striking 
when  it  was  seen  that  no  extraordinary  powers  were  put 
in  force,  but  that  the  ordinary  machinery  of  the  law  was 
amply  sufficient  to  put  down  sedition  and  punish  the 
offenders  against  the  peace  of  the  country.  Doubtless 
much  valuable  property,  and  even  many  lives,  were 
saved  by  this  vigorous  exertion,  while  the  country  was 
spared  the  serious  expense  always  attending  a  Special 
Commission. 

Several  letters  written  by  him  to  his  wife  and  other 
members  of  his  family  while  engaged  at  York  in  these 
arduous  labors  have  been  preserved,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing passages  may  be  extracted  : 

On  August  15,  he  writes  to  Lady  Denman,  soon  after 
his  arrival  at  York  : 

"  The  calendar  is  heavy,  the  cause  list  of  great  length. 
We  are  just  launched  on  our  great  sea  of  work.  /  am 
winding  myself  up  to  the  state  of  patience  and  quiet  which 
can  alone  guide  me  through  it  with  the  least  possible  annoy- 
ance. The  worst  of  it  is  that  my  brother  judge  [Maule] 
seems  very  suffering  indeed." 

The  words  italicized  contain  one  of  the  great  secrets 
of  Lord  Denman's  rapid  and  successful  dispatch  of  judi- 
cial business  ;  vigilance,  quietness,  patience,  and  prompti- 
tude were  judicial  qualities  he  possessed  in  a  degree 
rarely,  if  ever,  surpassed. 

At  the  close  of  the  first  week's  work,  he  writes  again  : 

"  At  length,  my  dearest  love,  there  is  a  little  leisure 
for  me  to  tell  you  that  this  laborious  week  has  passed 
away,  not  without  some  fatigue,  but  leaving  me  quite 
well,  and  Tom  [present  Lord  Denman]  very  much  im- 
proved. Indeed,  he  would  no  longer  have  any  treat- 
ment of  an  invalid  from  me,  if  it  did  not  provide  the 
means  of  keeping  him  as  prudent  as  he  has  been  hither- 
to. For  my  part,  though  my  days  and  two  first  evenings 
(for  I  felt  .myself  unequal  to  more  dissipation)  were  so 
crammed,  yet  I  slept  all  night  long  every  night,  and 
have  had  an  excellent  appetite.  I  have  just  got  to  the 


1842.]        YORK  SUMMER  ASSIZES  OF  1842.          m 

top  of  the  hill  of  business,  having  disposed  of  forty-eight 
causes  out  of  ninety-two,  but  must  not  expect  to  descend 
at  so  rapid  a  rate,  as  the  heavier  matters  remain  to  the 
last.  Yesterday  we  dined,  six  miles  out  of  York,  at  a 
new  house  in  Elizabethan  style,  with  a  magnificent  hall 
like  Lord  Middleton's  at  Wollaston.  It  is  the  property 
of  a  Mr.  Prentice.  The  company  was  agreeable,  and 
amongst  other  things,  I  heard  a  piece  of  wit  directed 
against  Sydney  Smith,  which  I  will  tell  you.  He  was 
quizzing  a  lady's  fears  about  the  cholera,  and  told  her 
she  would  swell  up  till  her  whole  frame  was  a  large  whit- 
low, and  then  burst.  She  was  shocked  and  angry,  and 
replied  that  it  would  be  better  to  be  a  whit  low  than  a 
low  wit.  I  shall  send  you  a  flight  of  newspapers  to-day. 
You  can  hardly  have  learnt  yet  that  Maltby  is  the  new 
Bishop  of  Durham,  more  retrenched  [in  income]  than  I 
have  been,  I  fear." 

On  the  2 1st  he  writes  to  his  daughter  Fanny  (Lady 
Baynes),  then  staying  with  the  Hodgsons  at  Eton  : 

"  The  tumults  appear  to  be  put  down ;  the  local 
soldiery  are  disbanded.  A  seditious  meeting  advertised 
to  be  held  to-day  at  Knavesmire  (the  race  course)  has 
been  prohibited  by  the  magistrates,  and  has  not  been  held. 
York,  which  looked  like  a  city  expecting  the  approach 
of  a  besieging  army,  resumes  its  peaceful  character. 

"  The  Duke  of  Cambridge  called  here  this  morning, 
and  afterwards  attended  the  Minster,  which  presented  a 
magnificent  spectacle,  containing  within  its  narrowed 
dimensions  not  fewer  than  5,000  people.  The  choir  was 
so  thronged  that  a  passage  to  the  altar  was  not  easy  for 
the  ministers.  The  anthem  was  half  \\\e  Old  Hundreth 
Psalm.  Why  dimidiated?  The  Dean's1  sermon,  in  its 
first  sentence  declared  a  controversy  with  the  authors  of 
'Tracts  for  the  Times,'  'penned  with  so  much  caution 
and  obscurity  that  it  is  not  easy  to  find  anything  ob- 
jectionable in  them.'  He  spoke  afterwards  of  our  '  Ox- 
ford Teachers,'  concluding  with  four  lines  from  a  moral 
poet  (Heber,  perhaps),  the  last  of  which  is — 
'  But  only  in  thy  deepest  heart  adore  him.' 

Tom  and   I   are  to  have  the  honor  of  dining  with  His 

1  Sir  William  Cockburn,  ninth  Baronet,  uncle  of  the  present  Chief  justice 
of  the  Queen's  Bench,  who  succeeded  him  in  1858. 


ii2  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.         [1841— 

Royal  Highness,  my  brother  judge  not  being  well 
enough,  for  one  of  the  distresses  of  our  position  is  that 
he  suffers  at  times  severely  from  asthma. 

"  The  Provost  will  have  perceived  that  some  of  my 
gossip  is  for  him,  but  I  must  address  him  and  dear  Bessie 
[Mrs.  Hodgson]  a  little  more  pointedly. 

"  I  think  he  might  have  reported  something  of  the 
Queen  besides  her  going  '  early  to  bed,'  which  is  only 
commendable  along  with  '  early  to  rise.'  I  hope 
Brighton  may  answer  all  its  intended  purposes,  and 
should  like  to  know  this  from  time  to  time.  If  mamma 
has  not  time  to  write,  I  am  sure  that  Betty  [Mrs. 
Hodgson's  little  girl]  has  not  come  to  these  years  with- 
out acquiring  that  accomplishment." 

The  next  day,  August  22,  he  writes  to  Lady  Den- 
man  : 

"  The  outrageous  movement  appears  to  be  now  effect- 
ually stopped,  and  I  no  longer  fear  any  other  ill  conse- 
quences from  it,  except  to  the  judges  who  may  have  the 
trouble  to  try  the  offenders.  Whether  we  shall  be  those 
judges  is  rather  doubtful,  as  Government  wish  to  have  a 
Special  Commission,  and  certainly  our  hard  work  hitherto 
gives  us  a  fair  right  to  repose.  At  a  sumptuous  dinner 
given  yesterday  by  one  of  the  aldermen  [Hudson,  soon 
afterwards  famous  as  the  Railway  King],  Tom  and  I 
had  the  honor  of  being  guests,  Maule  excusing  himself 
on  the  score  of  health.  The  illustrious  stranger  [the 
Duke  of  Cambridge]  was  rather  amusing,  but  more  full 
of  questions,  more  excited,  and  laughing  louder  than 
ever.  He  told  Tom  he  had  been  writing  answers  to 
addresses  that  he  expects  from  the  towns  he  is  about  to 
visit.  He  comes  to  this  part  of  the  world  on  his  way  to 
celebrate  Lord  Seaham's  son's  coming  of  age.  Prince 
George '  has  been  busy  in  putting  down  the  riots,  and 
showing  proper  firmness  and  activity,  while  evincing  (as 
his  father  also  did)  an  amiable  dislike  of  being  employed 
as  a  soldier  against  his  fellow-subjects. 

"  I  must  tell  you  that  the  Duke  asked  very  kindly 
after  the  Provost,  and  said  he  was  a  great  favorite  at  the 
Castle.  He  also  inquired  how  much  a  year  his  office 

1    The  present  Duke  of  Cambridge  and  Commander-in-Chief. 


1842.]       YORK  SUMMER  ASSIZES  OF  1842.          113 

produces,  and  put  a  similar  question  to  Wortley1  about 
his  fees. 

"This  morning  at  breakfast  the  servants  announced,  as 
I  thought,  Mr.  Charles  Anderson,  but,  to  my  joy  and 
surprise,  it  was  your  uncle,  Sir  Charles,  looking  extreme- 
ly well,  with  the  same  affectionate  and  cheerful  counte- 
nance as  ever,  his  figure  much  stoutened.  He  is  just 
come  in  from  Bedale,  gives  the  best  reports  of  all  there, 
and  speaks  of  our  Captain  [Admiral  Joseph  Denman] 
with  delight.  They  had  no  great  sport  on  the  moors, 
but  all,  especially  Miss  Pierce,  enjoyed  the  expedition 
greatly.  You  perceive  that  I  missed  my  visit  to  Milnes* 
at  Pontefract,  or  rather  I  must  tell  you  so  now,  for  on 
Saturday  I  was  obliged  to  remain  in  Court  till  after  the 
train  was  off.  I  am  growing  sadly  dull  with  prosing 
cases,  and  must  spare  any  more  prose  of  my  own. 
To-morrow  Lord  Normanby3  comes  in  for  the  races,  and 
dines  with  us.  I  shall  try  and  keep  Sir  Charles  to  meet 
him." 

On  the  24th,  he  writes  : 

"  The  troubles  are  certainly  at  an  end  for  the  present, 
and  I  trust  for  ever.  The  folly  and  the  wickedness  have 
luckily  gone  hand  in  hand,  and  the  former  has  defeated 
the  latter.  Prisoners  continue  to  be  sent  to  York  Castle. 
They  are  said  to  be  decent-looking  men,  who  were  earn- 
ing good  wages  and  living  in  comparative  comfort.  It 
is  devoutly  to  be  hoped  that  some  of  the  leaders  who 
led  them  astray  will  be  caught.  Such  must  be  severely 
punished. 

"  I  think  I  told  you  Sir  Charles  [Anderson]  was  to 
dine  with  us  yesterday.  He  met  Lord  Normanby  and 
some  very  pleasant  men,  who  took  all  the  trouble  of 
talking  off  his  hands.  He  seemed  very  well  entertained, 
and  has  been  with  us  this  morning  to  take  leave.  Maule 
and  he  have  taken  a  great  liking  to  each  other.  I  had  a 
pleasant  letter  from  Joe  [Admiral  Denman]  yesterday, 
and  a  good  long  one  from  Fanny  [Lady  Baynes]  to- 

1  The  late  Hon.  W.  Stuart  Wortley,  then  one  of  the  leaders  on  the 
Northern  Circuit. 

8  Father  of  the  present  Lord  Houghton. 

1  The  first  Marquis  of  Normanby,  so  well  known  as  a  successful  novelist 
and  still  more  successful  Viceroy  of  Ireland. 
II.— 8 


ij4  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN         [1841- 

day.  I  hope  you  will  find  her  much  better,  and 
make  her  much  better  still.  Make  her  as  well  as  she 
is  good." 

On  the  2/th,  he  writes: 

"  You  will  be  rather  sorry  to  hear  that  we  have  refused 
to  hand  over  the  prisoners  to  a  Special  Commission, 
which  was  asked  for  by  the  Government  solicitor  on  the 
grounds  which  we  thought  wholly  insufficient.  The 
consequence  is  that,  under  the  authority  of  our  ordinary 
commission,  we  must  proceed  to  try  them,  and  thereby, 
of  course,  prolong  our  labors.  What  has  occurred  to  me 
as  a  scheme  which  will  make  this  inconvenience  more 
tolerable,  and  fall  in  with  some  of  our  other  objects,  is 
this,  that  you  should  indulge  me  with  your  presence 
here  about  Tuesday  or  Wednesday,  and  proceed  next 
day  to  Bedale,  where  I  may  be  able  to  join  you,  and 
remain  a  few  days  at  the  end  of  the  week.  My 
own  opinion  is  that  the  whole  assizes  will  then  be 
brought  to  an  end.  If  you  approve  of  my  scheme,  I 
should  hope  to  return  to  Middleton  with  you  in  a  very 
few  days. 

"  You  will  see  with  great  regret  that  Tindal  has  lost 
his  eldest  son.  I  had  no  idea  of  his  being  in  danger, 
though  he  always  appeared  far  from  strong.  I  shall  write 
to  the  Chief  Justice  by  the  next  post." 

The  protracted  assizes,  notwithstanding  the  vigorous 
efforts  and  unwearied  labors  of  the  Chief  Justice  and  his 
most  able  and  self-sacrificing  coadjutor,  Mr.  Justice 
Maule,  lasted  well  into  September. 

The  repose  of  Stony  Middleton,  amid  his  family  and 
his  favorite  rural  pursuits  of  planting,  improving,  and 
landscape-gardening,  must  have  been  doubly  delightful 
to  the  Chief  Justice  after  his  long  and  harassing  labors. 

The  wish  to  which  he  had  frequently  recurred  in  his 
letters  to  Mrs.  Baillie,  to  have  herself  and  her  twin-sister, 
Lady  Croft,  at  Stony  Middleton,  was  gratified  during 
this  Long  Vacation.  He  thus  writes  to  Mrs.  Baillie 
shortly  before  the  visit  took  place : 

"  My  Lady  makes  me  very  happy  by  telling  me  that 
you  seem  at  length  really  disposed  to  come  and  look  at 
our  beautiful  scenery.  I  need  not  tell  you  what  pleasure 
it  will  give  me.  Indeed,  the  place  wants  something 


1842.]    FUNERAL   OF  LORD    WELLESLEY.         irs 

essential  to  my  fully  appreciating  it  till  you  and  my  sis- 
ter have  given  it  your  sanction.  The  country  goes  on 
increasing  in  beauty  till  September.  This  year  is  the 
best  season  for  the  foliage  I  have  ever  witnessed.  Will 
you  report  what  I  have  said  to  my  sister,  and  proceed 
to  make  arrangements  with  her  in  a  business-like  man- 
ner." 

He  writes  thence,  on  October  18,  1843,  to  Hodgson, 
who,  as  Provost  of  Eton,  had  recently  been  attending 
the  funeral  of  the  celebrated  Marquis  of  Wellesley: 

"  Your  feelings  as  to  the  writing  have  been  nearly  the 
same  as  my  own,  but  I  have  besides  felt  idleness  to  be 
in  the  nature  of  a  conscientious  duty  after  so  much 
work,  and  before  so  much  more.  Though  you  do  not 
mention  the  funeral,  I  consider  your  letter  as  a  complete 
answer  to  all  the  inquiries  I  was  anxious  to  make.  You 
have  caught  no  cold,  nor  suffered  more  than  from  the  oc- 
casion was  unavoidable,  after  so  many  pleasing  glimpses 
of  the  illustrious  old  Etonian.  Your  noble  institution 
must  derive  benefit  from  his  example — ofo?  extfeoS — but 
it  is  unfortunate  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  his  great 
deeds  was  done  in  India,  and  will  never  be  properly 
appreciated,  even  by  well-informed  men,  at  home.1 

"  Chatsworth  has  been  altogether  amiable  and  kind. 
Morpeth*  came  on  Friday.  I  saw  him  on  Saturday, 
looking  well,  thinner,  bronzed,  pleazed  with  his  visit  to 
America.  It  is  charming  to  see  how  both  parents  [Lord 
(the  sixth  Earl)  and  Lady  Carlisle,  then  staying  at  Chats- 
worth]  are  revived  by  his  return. 

"You  probably  know  that  Tom  and  Georgiana*  are 
about  to  live  apart  from  us.  I  trust  and  believe  that 
they  will  settle  very  comfortably,  and  am  convinced  of 
the  propriety  of  the  change.  We  may  hope  to  see  you 
oftener  in  London,  but  I  fairly  own  that  your  promise 
of  coming  to  us  here  is  much  more  agreeable  to  me,  for 
here  I  could  enjoy  your  society,  and  should  delight  in 
seeing  Bessie  and  the  children  enjoying  these  beautiful 

1  How  true  !  but,  for  the  interests  both  of  England  and  India,  how  much 
to  be  regretted. 

J  Long  so  known — afterwards  the  seventh  Earl  of  Carlisle,  for  many  years 
Viceroy  of  Ireland. 

*  The  present  Lord  Denman  and  his  first  wife,  who  for  some  time  had 
formed  part  of  Lord  Denman's  family. 


u6 


LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN. 


[1842. 


scenes.  After  the  next  Summer  Circuit — si  validus,  si 
sanus,  si  denique  bene — here  will  I  come  at  an  early 
period,  and  get  my  friends  and  offspring  more  about  me. 
These  falling  leaves  reconcile  me  to  our  return  to  town, 
but  a  longer  enjoyment  of  sunshine  and  verdure  would 
have  been  a  richer  treasure  for  the  memory.  The  im- 
provement here  is  universally  admitted  and  is  really 
striking. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

LITERARY   SOCIETY — REG.    v.    MILLIS — OPENING   OF 
MAZZINI'S   LETTERS   AT   THE   POST-OFFICE. 

A.  D.  1843,  1844.     JET.  64,  65. 

DENMAN,  after  his  elevation  to  the  Chief  Justice- 
ship, had  not  only  kept  up  but  extended  his  social 
relations  with  men  of  letters.  Among  those  of 
the  older  generation  he  had  a  close,  cordial,  and  abiding 
intimacy  with  Samuel  Rogers,  whom,  when  in  town,  he 
rarely  passed  many  days  without  seeing.  He  saw  as 
much  of  Sydney  Smith  on  his  visits  to  London  from 
Combe  Florey  as  was  compatible  with  the  universal  de- 
mand made  by  society  on  the  time  of  the  celebrated 
humorist,  who  used  to  describe  himself  on  such  occa- 
sions as  submerged  "  in  a  Caspian  Sea  of  Soup."  Among 
the  rising  men  of  mark  he  saw  most,  probably,  of  Tal- 
fourd  and  Charles  Dickens. 

For  the  genial,  generous  nature,  brilliant  eloquence 
and  distinguished  literary  faculty  of  Talfourd  he  had 
the  highest  and  warmest  appreciation ;  while,  as  to 
Dickens,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  in  the  three  king- 
doms any  one  could  be  found  who  reveled  with  greater 
delight  in  the  boundless  and  amazing  creativeness  of  the 
Great  Humorist. 

Among  the  stray  notes  that  have  cropped  up  from 
amid  the  chaos  of  the  Denman  papers  is  an  urgent 
one  dispatched  by  the  Chief  Justice  from  circuit  to  Lady 
Denman,  earnestly  enjoining  her  to  lose  no  time  in  secur- 
ing the  best  box  that  may  still  be  available  for  the  first 
night  of  Talfourds's  "Ion  "  (1835).  Mr.  Foster's  delight- 
ful memoirs  of  Dickens  supply  ample  proof  of  the  cordial 
relations  existing  between  the  celebrated  writer  and  the 
celebrated  Chief  Justice.  Denman,  in  May,  1844,  was 
one  of  the  chosen  friends  who,  with  Lord  Normanby, 


n8  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1843— 

Sydney  Smith,  and  others,  attended  the  farewell  dinner 
that  preceded  Dickens's  departure  for  Italy.1  In  Octo- 
ber of  the  same  year,  Dickens  writes  from  Genoa,  after 
reading  the  great  O'Connell  judgment,  delivered  in  the 
preceding  month :  "  Denman  delights  me  ;  I  am  glad  to 
think  I  have  always  liked  him  so  well.  I  am  sure  when 
he  makes  a  mistake  it  [alluding  no  doubt  to  the  Privilege 
question]  is  a  mistake  ;  and  that  no  one  lives  who  has  a 
grander  and  nobler  scorn  of  every  mean  and  dastard 
action.  I  would  to  heaven  it  were  decorous  to  pay  him 
some  public  tribute  of  respect."2  When  "  Dombey  and 
Son  "  was  in  course  of  publication,  Mr.  Forster  notes 
how,  at  a  dinner  party  at  Talfourd's,  the  deep  voice  of 
Denman  was  heard  exclaiming  across  the  table,  with 
that  zeal  of  conviction  which  all  who  knew  him  can  so 
well  realize,  "And  isn't  Bunsby  good  !  "* 

Nor  was  his  intercourse  with  the  men  of  letters  of 
the  newer  generation  confined  to  the  two  celebrities 
just  mentioned;  it  extended  also  to  several  others, 
among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Dr.  Samuel  Warren, 
the  learned  and  ingenious  author  of  "  Now  and  Then  " 
and  "  Ten  Thousand  a  Year,"  who,  from  some  stray 
notes  scattered  here  and  there  among  the  Denman 
papers,  appears  to  have  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  the  Chief 
Justice's  acquaintance,  and  the  occasional  honor  of  his 
correspondence. 

Among  several  mere  scraps  from  Sydney  Smith,  has 
been  found  the  following  characteristic  note,  written 
during  the  height  of  the  London  season  of  1841,  on 
occasion  of  Sydney's  having  asked  Denman  and  his  wife 
to  join  a  dinner  party  to  which  he  had  also  invited  Lady 
Holland,  then  in  the  first  year  of  her  widowhood,  and 
who,  as  is  well-known,  was  not  generally  met  or  visited 
by  the  stricter  part  of  the  female  world: 

June  8,  1841. 

"  Dear  Lord  Denman, — Mrs.  Sydney  and  I  have  made 
a  blunder,  which  I  am  sure  you  will  have  the  goodness 
to  excuse,  and  the  more  especially  as  it  proceeded  from 

1 "  Memoirs  of  Dickens."  vol.  ii.  chap.  iv.  p.  85, 

*  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  chap.  v.  p.  no. 

1  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  chap.  xvi.  p.  337,  in  note. 


I844-J  SYDNEY  SMITH  AND  LADY  HOLLAND.  119 

our  desire  to  secure  Lady  Denman's  company  in  con- 
junction with  yours. 

"Lady  Holland  dines  with  us  on  the  I7th.  Does 
Lady  Denman  know  Lady  Holland,  and,  if  not,  will  that 
deprive  us  of  the  pleasure  of  Lady  Denman's  company? 
Lady  Holland  sinned  early  in  life,1  with  Methuselah  and 
Enoch,  but  still  she  is  out  of  the  pale  of  the  regular 
ladies,  and  the  case  ought  to  have  been  put.  Pray  tell 
me  if  this  will  make  any  difference.  Your  answer  will 
be  received  by  me  in  the  strictest  confidence. 
"  I  remain,  my  dear  Lord, 

"  Always  with  sincere  respect  and  regard,  yours, 

4<  SYDNEY  SMITH." 

As  Denman,  to  Sydney  Smith's  knowledge,  had  been 
at  this  time  for  more  than  twenty  years  on  intimate 
terms  with  the  Hollands,  it  seems  at  first  sight  a  little 
singular  that  he  should  have  thought  any  explanation 
as  to  Lady  Holland's  social  position  necessary ;  but  he 
may  well  have  been  in  ignorance  whether  Lady  Denman 
had  ever  accompanied  her  husband  to  Holland  House, 
or  met  its  witty  and  distinguished  mistress  elsewhere, 
and  he  was  therefore  clearly  quite  right  in  "  putting  the 
case." 

In  the  Parliamentary  session  of  1843,  Denman's 
exertions  were  principally  confined  to  questions  more 
or  less  connected  with  the  suppression  of  the  Slave 
Trade,  a  subject  that  yearly,  from  this  time  forward, 
absorbed  more  and  more  of  his  time  and  energy. 

On  April  7,  1843,  Brougham  having,  in  an  elaborately 
prepared  speech,  moved  that  the  thanks  of  the  House 
be  given  to  Lord  Ashburton  for  his  services  in  con- 
cluding the  Treaty  of  Washington,  Denman,  while  con- 
curring in  the  motion,  took  occasion,  in  consequence  of 
something  that  had  fallen  from  Lord  Aberdeen  in  the 
course  of  the  debate,  to  refer  to  his  lordship's  already 
cited  letter  of  May  20,  1842,  which  he  (Denman)  con- 
strued as  reflecting  on  his  son,  Captain  Denman's,  pro- 
ceedings at  the  Gallinas. 

1  Lady  Holland's  marriage  with  her  first  husband,  Sir  Godfrey  Webster, 
was  dissolved  in  1797  or  1798,  immediately  on  which  she  married  Lord 
Holland,  with  whom  she  had  previously  eloped.  In  1841  she  was  a  recent 
widow,  Lord  Holland  having  died  in  1840. 


120  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1843— 

In  a  speech,  the  report  of  which  he  himself  seems 
to  have  corrected  for  Messrs.  Hansard,1  Lord  Denman 
said  : 

"  A  letter  has  been  written  which  I  was  not  prepared 
to  hear  spoken  of  as  it  has  been  by  the  noble  earl  [Aber- 
deen]. 

"  It  seems  to  me,  whether  I  look  at  it  as  a  question 
of  injustice  to  an  individual,  or  as  a  matter  of  im- 
portance to  the  public  service,  that  it  is  a  question 
how  far  it  was  proper  that  such  a  letter  should  have 
been  written. 

"  Some  explanation  is  necessary.  I  avow  for  myself  I 
think  this  great  subject  has  never  been  regarded  in  its 
true  light.  Things  ought  to  be  called  by  their  true 
names,  and  the  Slave  Trade  never  mentioned  but  to  be 
stigmatized  as  the  worst  of  crimes.  If  this  be  so,  the 
important  consequence  is  involved  that  all  mankind 
have  a  right  to  put  it  down.  It  is  more  than  a  Rig/it — it 
is  a  Duty.  If  we  may  arrest  the  arm  of  the  murderer 
when  raised  in  our  presence  ;  if  we  may  release  the  kid- 
napped man  from  his  kidnapper — we  may  surely  com- 
bine to  put  down  the  traffic  in  human  beings.  Every 
civilized  nation  has  agreed  that  this  is  a  crime  which 
ought  to  be  extirpated  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  the 
only  question  now  remaining  is,  by  what  means  this  is 
to  be  done  ! 

"  I  will  not  enter  into  a  distinction  between  the  right 
of  Search,  and  the  right  of  Visit ;  I  stand  up  for  the 
right  of  prevention.  I  am  not  insensible  of  the  import- 
ance of  co-operation  with  other  powers  ;  but  I  maintain 
that  every  restriction  imposed  by  treaty  on  that  natural 
right  [of  Prevention  of  Crime]  is  a  concession  not  lightly 
to  be  made. 

"  It  is  quite  clear  to  me  that  no  other  means  for  the 
suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade  can  be  so  effectual  as 
the  employment  of  cruisers  on  the  coast.  But  seizure 
at  sea  is  too  late  ;  for,  when  once  the  cargo  of  human 
beings  has  been  placed  on  board  the  vessel,  half  the  mis- 
chief is  done.  She  may  escape  to  Cuba  or  Brazil,  or 
even  if  not,  the  very  chase  is  generally  accompanied  by 

'See  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixviii.,  Appendix  1461.  It 
does  not  greatly  vary  from  the  uncorrected  report  commencing  at  p.  673. 


1844.]       SLAVE     TRADE    SUPPRESSION.  121 

wholesale  murder — the  throwing  overboard  many  of 
the  victims,  in  order  to  lighten  the  vessel  for  escape. 
The  great  object,  then,  is  to  prevent  the  embarkation  of 
the  negroes  from  these  barracoons  on  the  coast,  where 
they  are  regularly  stored,  like  any  other  merchandise, 
for  the  purpose  of  immediate  transportation.  And  if  an 
officer,  happening  to  command  on  such  coast,  should 
strike  out  a  new  line  of  prevention,  and,  acting  on  his 
own  responsibility,  but  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  his  instructions,  should  make  embarkation  im- 
possible by  releasing  the  slaves  from  these  barracoons, 
who  would  deny  that  such  a  man  entitled  himself  to  the 
thanks  of  his  country. 

"  This  had  been  done  by  an  officer,  who  received  for 
what  he  had  done  the  full  approbation  both  of  the  late 
and  of  the  present  Board  of  Admiralty,  and  who  had 
been  shortly  afterwards  promoted.  He  had  the  happi- 
ness of  giving  freedom  to  more  than  900  of  his  fellow- 
creatures,  who  were  now  settled  at  Sierra  Leone ;  a 
deadly  blow  had  been  struck  at  the  trade  itself,  and  not 
a  drop  of  blood  had  been  shed. 

"  I  say,  with  pride,  that  this  conduct  entitles  the 
officer  to  whom  I  have  alluded,  to  be  regarded  as  a  pub- 
lic benefactor.  It  was,  therefore,  with  no  small  surprise 
that  I  read  in  the  public  journals  the  letter  of  the  noble 
earl  to  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  [letter  of  May  20, 
1842] — a  letter  appearing  to  reflect  on  these  proceed- 
ings ;  for  it  alluded  by  name  to  the  Gallinas  River, 
where  they  had  been  carried  on,  and  suggested  that  new 
instructions  should  be  given  to  the  officers,  as  if  their 
former  conduct  was  open  to  censure.  I  must  venture  to 
think  that  any  language  susceptible  of  such  construction 
is  highly  inexpedient  for  the  public  service." 

Four  days  later  (April  II,  1843),  on  Brougham's  laying 
before  the  House  a  "  bill  for  the  more  effectual  suppres- 
sion of  slavery,"  Lord  Aberdeen  took  occasion  to  ex- 
plain that  in  his  leter  of  May  20,  1842,  he  had  intended 
no  reference  to  the  proceedings  of  Captain  Denman. 
"Nothing,"  he  said,  '•  was  further  from  his  intention 
than  to  cast  any  such  imputation.  Even  restricted,"  as 
he  admitted  his  own  views  were,  "  as  to  what  could 
legally  be  done  by  our  cruisers  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 


123  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1843— 

that  gallant  officer  in  anything  he  had  done  had  not 
come  within  the  exception  he  (Lord  Aberdeen)  had  laid 
down;  and  he  must  add  that  there  was  no  one  who  had 
more  distinguished  himself  in  this  important  service, 
nor  for  whom  he  entertained  a  higher  respect  than  for 
the  gallant  officer." ' 

Lord  Denman,  after  expressing  his  gratification  at  the 
statement  of  the  noble  earl,  went  on  to  observe  : 

"That  he  was  not  sure  his  opinions  did  not  go  further 
even  than  those  of  his  noble  and  learned  friends 
[Brougham  and  Campbell],  for  he  had  ventured  to  speak 
of  a  natural  law  of  right  and  wrong,  which  declared  a 
pirate  an  enemy  of  the  human  race,  and  the  Slave  Trade 
obnoxious  to  the  principles  of  that  law. 

"  Nothing,  however,  was  further  from  his  intention 
than  to  act  indiscriminately  upon  the  principles  of  that 
law,  for  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  endeavor  to  obtain 
the  assistance  of  other  nations  to  make  it  effectual. 
But,  he  believed  the  government  would  do  better  in 
their  negotiations  by  starting  on  the  wider  principle — 
viewing  the  Slave  Trade  in  the  light  of  a  crime  which  all 
nations  had  a  right  to  prevent,  and  then  proceeding  to 
discuss  practically  what  measures  would  be  most  effect- 
ual for  its  .suppression — than  if  they  commenced  by 
petitioning  other  nations  to  do  them  the  favor  to  join  in 
putting  it  down."  a 

In  the  Spring  Assizes  of  1843,  Denman  presided  on 
the  Home,  and  in  the  Summer  Assizes  on  the  Norfolk, 
Circuit.  The  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Lady 
Denman,  written  from  Bedford  on  the  Norfolk  Circuit 
in  July,  relates  to  a  dinner  given  to  the  Judges  at  the 
Stowe  by  the  second  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  bears 
witness  to  the  profuse  magnificence  by  which,  amongst 
other  means,  that  lavish  and  splendid  nobleman  con- 
trived to  squander  a  vast  revenue  and  impoverish  a 
princely  property.1 

"  So   splendid  a  dinner  as  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 

1  This  is  all  mighty  well,  but  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the  spirit,  if  not 
with  the  terms,  of  ihe  letter  of  May  20,  1843. 

'  Hansard,  Parl.  D«b.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixviii.  p.  826,  &c. 

*  The  second  duke  died  in  1861.  This  dinner  was  one  item  on  a  long 
train  of  extravagance,  that  led  ultimately  to  the  sale,  under  execution,  oi 
the  furniture  and  collections  at  Stowe. 


1844.]     REG.  v.  MILLIS—  MARRIAGE  LAWS.       123 

gave  us  yesterday  I  never  saw,  except  at  the  christening 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales  [at  Windsor  Castle,  in  January, 
1842,  at  which  Denman  had  been  present].  An  immense 
party  of  the  magistrates  and  gentlemen,  more  than  100 
in  number;  a  most  excellent  dinner,  plate  on  sideboards 
the  whole  length  of  each  side  of  the  long  room.  The 
host  very  hearty  and  good-natured.  We  went  there 
again  this  morning  and  saw  the  pictures,  some  very  fine. 
The  Duke  had  returned  to  town." 

In  the  summer  months  of  1843,  Denman  was  very 
greatly  occupied  ^as  his  papers  show)  in  preparing  his 
judgment,  to  be  delivered  in  the  House  of  Lords,  in  the 
important  case  of  the  Queen  v.  Millis,  the  material 
facts  of  which  are  thus  concisely  stated,  with  perfect 
accuracy,  in  the  marginal  note  of  the  case,  as  published 
in  the  tenth  volume  of  Messrs.  Clark  and  Finelly's  "  Re- 
ports." ' 

A  member  of  the  Established  Church  in  Ireland  went 
with  a  Presbyterian  woman  to  the  house  of  a  regularly 
placed  Presbyterian  minister  of  the  parish,  and  there 
entered  into  a  present  contract  of  marriage  with  her,  the 
minister  performing  a  religious  ceremony  between  them, 
according  to  the  rites  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
man  having  afterwards,  but  before  the  death  of  the 
woman,  married  another  person  in  England,  the  question 
arose  whether  the  first  ceremony  was  a  valid  marriage, 
so  as  to  support  the  charge  of  bigamy. 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  on  appeal  from  the  Irish 
judges,  who  had  decided  this  point  in  the  negative,  the 
six  law  lords  who  delivered  their  opinions  on  the  case 
equally  divided :  Brougham,  Denman,  and  Campbell 
held  that  the  first  marriage  was  valid :  Lyndhurst,  Cot- 
tenham,  and  Abinger  that  it  was  not. 

The  general  maxim  applicable  to  such  an  exactly  even 
balance  of  judicial  opinion  prevailed.  The  culprit  was 
discharged,  and  the  case  was  afterwards  provided  for  by 
express  legislation. 

Denman's  judgment  (delivered  on  August  II,  1843),* 
in  the  preparation  of  which  he  had  spared  no  pains,  was 
very  able. 

1  Aeg.  v.  MilKs,  10  Clark  and  Finellf ,  House  of  Lords  Cases. 
*  Reported  10  Clark  and  Finclly,  pp.  804-831. 


124  LTFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1843— 

His  principal  point  was  that  the  Irish  judges  had  gone 
wrong  by  reversing  the  order  of  proof . 

"The  burden  of  proof,"  he  said,  "has  been  supposed 
to  rest  on  those  who  assert  that  a  marriage  may  be  law- 
ful without  the  intervention  of  a  priest.  Now,  I  most 
confidently  maintain  that  marriage,  being  a  civil  contract, 
flowing  from  the  natural  law,  must  be  taken  as  lawful  till 
some  enactment  which  annuls  it  can  be  produced  and  proved 
by  those  who  deny  its  laiv fulness" 

He  concluded  his  learned  and  closely-reasoned  judg- 
ment in  these  words : 

"  Upon  the  whole,  I  am  most  clearly  of  opinion  that 
a  contract  per  vcrba  de  presente  was,  before  Lord  Hard- 
wicke's  Act  (of  1753)  passed,  by  the  English  law,  a  good 
marriage — ipsum  matrimonium. 

"  From  the  ground  I  have  taken  I  can  not  descend  to 
anything  like  compromise  on  the  principle  that  commu- 
nis  error  facit  jus — on  the  supposition,  that  is,  that 
there  may  indeed  be  error  in  the  judicial  opinion 
hitherto  prevailing,  but  that  it  has  been  committed  by 
so  many  persons  of  the  highest  authority  that  it  ought 
now  to  be  sanctioned  by  a  legislative  declaration. 

"  I  think  there  is  no  error  in  that  opinion — no  proof 
whatever  that  the  church  would  at  any  time  have  hesi- 
tated to  enforce  this  contract,  or  to  consider  it  a  mar- 
riage for  any  purpose. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  if  there  had  been  such  z.commu- 
nis  error  it  is  not  the  opinion  of  the  great  lawyers  and 
judges  who  have  been  named,  but  the  vulgar  notion  cur- 
rent in  the  world,  confounding  the  solemnization  of  a 
priest  with  the  marriage  contract,  to  which  it  gave  at 
once  authenticity  and  respectability. 

"  The  prevalence  of  that  notion  is  explained  by  the 
practice  ;  and  it  has  laid  hold  of  the  public  mind  from 
that  propensity  to  take  for  granted  which  we  have  so  often 
seen  leading  to  wrong  conclusions. 

"  In  spite  of  it,  however,  the  judicial  mind  of  England 
has  now  for  ages  held  with  equal  tenacity  the  opposite 
faith  ;  not  reported  in  cases  (for  the  prudent  usages  of 
men  rendered  these  almost  impossible),  but  from  an  en- 
lightened consideration  of  the  nature  of  the  contract."1 

1  Clark  and  Finelly,  pp.  829,  830. 


i844-]     LETTER  TO  JUSTICE  COLERIDGE.        125 

In  the  Spring  Assizes  of  the  year  1844,  Lord  Denman 
(accompanied  by  Mr.  Baron  Alderson),  again  presided 
on  the  Home  Circuit,  which  he  preferred  to  any  other, 
from  the  facility  it  afforded  him  of  occasionally  running 
up  to  town. 

It  was  while  sitting  in  the  Civil  Court  at  Maidstone, 
on  March  12,  1844,  that  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Mr.  Jus- 
tice Coleridge  (then  on  the  Oxford  Circuit),  commencing 
with  a  few  lines  of  Maccaronic  Latin,  at  the  expense  of 
the  late  Mr.  Sergeant  Dowling,1  who,  somewhat  in  the 
style  of  the  immortal  Sergeant  Buzfuz,  was  leading  for 
the  plaintiff  in  a  seduction  case  before  a  Kentish  com- 
mon jury. 

"  (Dowling  aperient e  casum  seductionis  multd  cum  grav- 
itate in  pro&mo,  subito  postea  levissime  gossipiente^f  Your 
fate  at  Worcester  awaits  me  here.  Cause  list  24 — Special 
Juries  10 — all  the  cases  to  be  of  enormous  length — 40, 
even  60,  witnesses  familiarly  talked  of — three  cases  at 
least  to  last  two  days.  Alderson,  with  102,  not  series 
cases  on  the  criminal  side,  will  probably  render  some 
assistance.  He  is  very  well  and  very  agreeable. 

"  I  am  desired  by  Sir  James  Graham  [then  Minister 
for  the  Home  Department  in  Sir  R.  Peel's  administra- 
tion] to  ask  for  a  return  of  all  salaries,  fees,  and  emolu- 
ments. I  presume  yours  to  be  .£5,000 ;  but,  if  you 
answer  me  this  question,  you  will  tell  me  also  something 
about  yourself  and  your  goings  on. 

"  Dowling,  looking  and  gesticulating  like  Othello,8  now 
informs  the  jury  that  the  seduced  has  already  been 
awarded  £100  in  a  previous  action  for  breach  of  marriage 
promise,  but  that  the  heartless  seducer  has  taken  his 
property  abroad,  so  her  father  fires  this  second  shot  after 
the  delinquent. 

"  Brougham  is  excessively  indignant,  Alderson  not 
much  less  so,  at  the  sentence  of  death  pronounced  in 

1  Afterwards  Judge  of  the  County  Court  at  York  (Circuit  No.  15) :  he 
died,  1868. 

*  "  Dowling  opening  a  case  of  seduction  with  vast  solemnity  at  the  outset, 
but  suddenly  dropping  down  in  the  poorest  gossipping." 

3  The  excellent  and  learned  Sergeant  was  proverbially  ill-favored — 
lank  and  swarthy,  with  a  vast  nose,  and  a  mouth  and  lips  more  re- 
sembling those  of  "  a  man  and  a  brother  "  than  is  usual  in  the  Caucasian 
races. 


ia6  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1843— 

Louisiana  on  the  crime  of  aiding  a  slave  to  escape.  The 
execution  is  to  follow  in  April.  Could  any  expression 
of  sentiment  by  our  judicial  body  avail  anything?  In- 
terference might  only  exasperate,  but  Everett '  thinks  it 
may  possibly  be  useful ;  there  seems  little  reason  to 
think  it  can  do  harm.  Now  farewell ;  remember  me 
kindly  to  Parke."3 

The  Chief  Justice,  acting  on  the  suggestion  men- 
tioned in  the  last  paragraph  of  the  above  letter,  hurried 
up  from  circuit,  and  six  days  afterwards,  on  March  18, 
rose  up  in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Lords,  to  state  the 
atrocious  sentence,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Judges  of 
England  to  protest  against  its  enormity.  He  said: 

"  He  had  been  led  to  advert  to  the  subject  in  that 
House  from  the  deep  respect  entertained  in  this  country 
for  the  manner  in  which  justice  was  administered  in 
America — the*  humanity  and  legal  knowledge  which 
guided  its  proceedings,  and  inspired  the  eminent  men 
who  presided  in  its  courts.  He  called  on  all  in  authority 
there  to  pause  a  moment  and  consider  whether  such  a 
sentence  as  death  for  aiding  a  slave  to  escape  ought  to 
be  carried  out." ' 

In  the  course  of  the  Easter  Term  that  followed,  Den- 
man  sustained  a  severe  loss  in  the  death  of  the  most  in- 
timate of  all  his  old  friends — the  excellent  and  accom- 
plished John  Herman  Merivale.  Mr.  Merivale  died  sud- 
denly at  his  house  in  Bedford  Square,  on  April  25,  1844, 
from  an  immediately  fatal  attack  of  apoplexy.  He  had 
been  out  walking  with  his  daughters,  and  on  his  return 
retired  to  his  own  room,  where,  a  few  hours  after,  he 
was  found  quite  dead.  He  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
scholars  of  his  time,  particularly  excelling  in  an  almost 
unrivaled  faculty  of  reproducing  the  gems  of  Greek  and 
Latin  poetry  in  English  verse  translations  of  singular 
fidelity  and  elegance.  He  was  also  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  the  highest  periodical  literature  of  the  day — 
a  day  in  which  Jeffery  and  Brougham  and  Macauiay, 
Scott  and  Southey  and  Milman,  were  among  those  who 

1  Then  Minister  for  the  United  States  at  the  Court  of  St.  James. 
*  Afterwards  Lord  Wensleydak,  then  traveling  the  Oxford  Circuit  with 
Coleridge,  as  Senior  Judge  of  Assize. 

9  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxii.  p.  1156. 


i844-J        HOUSE    OF    LORDS    DEBATES.  127 

wrote  for  the  "  Edinburgh  "  and  the  "  Quarterly."  His 
high  talents,  his  private  virtues,  and  his  endearing  social 
qualities  rendered  him  worthy  of  the  friendship  which 
for  nearly  half  a  century  bound  him  so  closely  and  in- 
timately to  his  illustrious  friend.  Denman  deeply  de- 
plored his  loss,  though,  from  the  circumstance  of  his 
death  occurring  in  town,  where  all  their  common  friends 
were  then  residing,  no  written  expression  of  his  grief  is 
to  be  found  among  his  papers.1 

During  the  Parliamentary  session  of  1844,  Denman 
was  not  an  unfrequent  speaker.  The  following  are 
among  the  subjects  of  professional  or  general  interest 
upon  which  he  addressed  the  House. 

On  April  I  he  voted  for  the  third  reading  of  Lord 
Lyndhurst's  Bill  on  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  though,  from 
the  conviction  of  Government  that  they  could  not 
carry  the  wider  measure,  the  abolition  of  the  Diocesan 
Courts  was  omitted  from  the  bill.  Lord  Denman  said  as 
to  this,  that 

"  He  could  not  help  regarding  it  as  a  most  melancholy 
and  mortifying  circumstance  that  Courts  whose  abolition 
had  been  recommended  for  fourteen  years — Courts  which 
were  a  public  nuisance — Courts  whose  operations  was 
most  oppressive  towards  individuals,  which  had  been 
condemned  by  all  authorities  of  every  description  enti- 
tled to  respect — should  baffle  the  attempts  of  so  power- 
ful a  Government  to  effect  their  abolition."* 

On  May  13,  Brougham  having,  in  a  speech  of  great 
elaboration,  moved  the  second  reading  of  a  Bill  for  the 
Consolidation  of  the  Criminal  Lazu,  Denman  supported 
the  second  reading,  observing  that 

"  Beyond  all  doubt  the  object  to  which,  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  the  criminal  law,  the  attention  of  the  legislature 
should  now  be  directed  was  the  simplification  of  our 
criminal  code.  He  thought  the  modification  of  that  law 
a  fit  subject  to  be  undertaken  by  the  legislature  and  the 
Government,  and  he  entirely  agreed  that  it  was  an  ob- 

1  His  widow  long  survived  him,  having  died  at  a  very  advanced  age  in 
the  course  of  last  year.  His  eldest  son,  Mr.  Herman  Merivale,  C.  B.,  Per- 
manent Under-Secretary  of  State  for  India,  is  well-known  as  the  inheritor, 
not  only  of  the  brilliant  scholarship,  but  of  the  estimable  qualities  of  his 
father. 

*  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxiii.  p.  1688. 


i28  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN         [1843— 

ject  of  paramount  importance  that  the  criminal  code  of 
the  country  should  be  rendered  as  effective  and,  at  the 
same  time,  as  humane  as  possible.1 

On  June  21,  Lord  Lyndhurst  having  moved  that  Lord 
Cottenham's  Creditors  and  Debtors  Bill  be  referred  to  a 
select  committee,  Lord  Denman  made  an  earnest  appeal 
against  the  proposal  : 

"  He  confessed  the  very  principle  of  the  abolition  of 
imprisonment  for  debt  was  now  placed  in  great  jeopardy. 
If  it  was  not  the  intention  of  his  noble  and  learned  friend 
(Lord  Lyndhurst)  to  abolish  imprisonment  for  debt,  then 
he  would  press  it  upon  the  noble  duke  personally,  and 
with  the  greatest  energy,  that  he,  as  minister  of  this 
country,  should  lend  all  the  weight  of  his  high  character 
and  station  to  bring  this  matter  to  a  real  and  decisive 
issue,  in  order  that  they  might  not  go  from  month  to 
month,  and  from  year  to  year,  playing  with  the  feelings 
of  a  great  body  of  people  who  were  entitled  to  their 
lordships'  commiseration,  and  also  leaving  in  doubt 
what  the  actual  law  of  the  country  on  so  important  a 
subject  was  to  be."4 

In  the  summer  of  1844,  commenced  the  long  and  angry 
discussions  that  arose  on  the  subject  of  the  opening  of 
Mazzims  letters  at  the  Post  Office,  under  warrant  from 
Sir  James  Graham,  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  Home 
Department  in  Sir  Robert  Peel's  administration. 

Lord  Radnor  having  brought  on  the  subject  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  on  June  17,  1844,  Denman  spoke,  as  he 
felt,  very  strongly  on  the  matter,  as  one  of  vast  import- 
ance, not  only  to  foreigners  resident  in  this  country,  but 
also  to  our  own  people. 

"  Could  anything  [he  asked]  be  more  revolting  to  the 
feelings  than  that  any  man  might  have  all  his  letters 
opened  in  consequence  of  some  information  having  been 
given  about  him  to  the  Secretary  of  State?  or  that  the 
contents  of  letters  he  might  never  have  received,  might 
be  made  use  of  for  the  purpose  of  proceeding  against 
him  in  a  Court  of  Justice?  The  letters  of  a  man  might 
be  opened,  and  he  might  not  have  the  slightest  intima- 
tion that  he  had  been  betrayed.  How  is  such  a  state  of 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxiv.  pp.  985-1003. 
8  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxv.  p.  1204. 


I844-J        LETTER     TO     LADY  .DENMAN.  129 

things  to  be  tolerated  in  a  free  country  ?  He  must  say, 
without  the  slightest  hesitation,  that  it  ought  not  to  be 
borne  with  for  a  single  hour."1 

Lord  Radnor  having  renewed  his  motion  on  June  25, 
Denman  again  spoke  on  the  question.  He  said  : 

"It  was  imperative  on  Parliament  to  inquire  into  the 
mode  in  which  this  power  was  exercised,  and  to  ascer- 
tain whether  rules  could  not  be  laid  down  under  which 
alone  the  power  could  ever  usefully,  beneficially,  or  con- 
sistently with  honor,  be  exercised  at  all. 

"  He  thought  it  very  doubtful  whether  the  Secretary 
of  State,  acting  alone  and  as  an  individual  minister,  had 
this  right ;  whether  it  was  not  confined  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  acting  in  concert  with  all  the  ministers  repre- 
senting the  Government.  That  such  power  might  be  so 
vested  in  the  whole  Government,  from  the  necessity  of 
the  case,  which  might  be  so  overpowering  as  to  form  a 
temporary  excuse  for  the  suspension  and  violation  of 
all  law,  no  one  would  deny.  But  that  the  power  should 
be  suffered  to  exist  in  a  manner  so  oppressive,  without 
the  slightest  opportunity  of  any  reparation,  or  any  re- 
sponsibility, was  what  he  did  not  think  an  English  Par- 
liament or  the  English  people  would  any  longer  endure. 

"  He  did  not  think  this  a  question  of  expediency  or 
inexpediency,  but  a  question  of  right  and  wrong.  He 
could  no  more  believe  it  necessary  to  show  that  such  a 
power  ought  not  to  be  vested  in  the  discretion  of  any 
individual  than  he  should  feel  it  necessary  to  argue  that 
it  was  wrong  to  pick  a  pocket."  * 

In  the  summer  of  this  same  year,  1844,  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice presided  on  his  favorite  old  circuit,  the  Midland, 
whence  he  sent  Lady  Denman  a  letter,  begun  at  Leices- 
ter and  ended  at  Coventry,  under  somewhat  whimsical 
circumstances : 

"  What  do  you  think,  my  dearest  Love,  gives  me  this 
opportunity  of  writing  to  you  ?  S *s  having  for- 
gotten to  pack  up  my  hat,  for  want  of  which  I  can  not 
get  forward  to  Coventry,  but  sit  in  the  back,  room  behind 
the  now  empty  court  at  Leceister,  waiting  till  that  valu- 
able piece  of  property  is  brought.  Well,  then,  I  must 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxv.,  pp.  975-986. 
*  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxv.  pp.  i33 
II.— q 


ijo  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1843— 

tell  you  I  went  over  to  Godderly  yesterday ;  towards  the 
afternoon  the  weather,  which  had  been  rainy  in  the 
morning,  cleared  up,  the  horses  were  got  ready,  and  the 
Colonel  took  Tom  and  me  a  ride  of  some  twelve  miles 
over  that  most  smiling  country.  It  reminded  me  of  the 
old  times,  when  your  father  [Rev.  R.  Vevers,  of  Saxby] 
used  to  take  me  on  horseback  with  him  over  the  same 
district;  —  we  were  never  a  single  moment  without 
bright  sunshine,  and  I  never  enjoyed  a  more  agreeable 
ride." 

Here  the  Leicester  letter  breaks  off,  and  the  narrative 
is  continued  the  next  day  from  Coventry: 

"Then  came  the  hat,  since  which  we  have  proceeded 
to  Coventry,  opened  the  Commission,  charged  the  Grand 
Jury,  attended  divine  service,  and  returned  to  Court, 
where  we  are  now  sitting  till  the  cases  are  ready  for 
trial.  The  church  is  that  which  displays  the  beautiful 
spire,  its  size  is  immense,  and  it  was  quite  full  of  people, 
a  thing  almost  unknown  on  week  days,  and  a  proof,  I 
fear,  that  work  is  very  scarce  here  with  the  multitude.. 

"  I  have  just  received  and  accepted  an  invitation  to 
dine  with  Lord  Leigh  on  Saturday,  but  I  trust  the  break- 
down of  the  business  here,  before  that  time,  will  enable 
me  to  excuse  myself  there,  or,  at  all  events,  that  Sunday 
will  bring  me  to  you." 

Writing  the  next  day  from  the  same  place,  he  tells 
his  wife  how  he  had  found  time,  while  at  Leicester,  to 
ride  over  to  her  late  father's  old  living  at  Saxby,  where 
he  had  visited  the  church,  "  to  which,"  he  writes,  "  I 
owe  the  greatest  blessings  of  my  life."  It  was  there  that 
they  had  been  married  nearly  forty  years  before. 

From  Middleton,  a  few  days  after  this,  he  writes  to 
Mr.  Justice  Coleridge,  who  had  just  completed  the 
North  Wales  Circuit : 

"August  13,  1844. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — Your  letter  gave  me  the  great- 
est pleasure:  among  other  reasons  because  it  supplied  a 
want,  no  other  Circuit  having  passed  without  a  letter 
from  a  judicial  brother.  Since  coming  here  on  Sunday 
night  I  have  heard  from  Williams,  in  all  the  luxury  of 
ire  at  the  O'Connell  arrangement.1  The  numerous 

'By  which  the  judges  were  summoned  to  give  their  opinions  in  the  House 


1844.]  CORRESPONDENCE.  13, 

points  ought  be  fully  discussed  among  us.  Coltman  ' 
seemed  to  feel  much  doubt  on  the  whole  matter,  but 
judges  on  circuit  have  other  things  to  occupy  thc^m. 
Cottenham  [then  Lord  Chancellor]  was  struck  with  the 
difficulties  which  seem  to  beset  you — the  counts  and 
findings.  Campbell  thought  the  Swearing-before-Grand- 
Jury-Act  almost,  if  not  altogether,  fatal.  I  have  some- 
how conquered  my  objection  on  the  former,  and  think 
I  could  get  over  the  latter,  though  the  words  are  surely 
hard  and  obstinate/  But  the  jury-panel  is  my  stumbling- 
block  and  scandal.  Is  the'  challenge  to  the  array  taken 
away  entirely?  If  not,  must  it  not  be  in  force,  wherever, 
there  is  default  in  the  Sheriff  (or  any  of  those  officers 
who  by  recent  acts  are  appointed  to  divide  among  them 
his  ancient  duties) — a  default,  I  mean,  of  such  a  nature 
as  to  provide  for  the  party  a  different  array  -from  what 
the  law  contemplates?  and  can  this  be  more  effectually 
done  than  by  cutting  a  monstrous  cantling  out  of  it  (the 
jury  panel)?  Such  is  the  state  of  opinion  to  which  I 
brought  myself  in  the  few  days  between  the  Guildhall 
sittings  and  Northampton  [the  commencement  of  the 
circuit].  That  opportunity  I  took  of  rummaging  the 
few  cases  cited  by  Lord  Coke  from  the  Year  Books, 
the  principal  one  of  which  I  translated,  and  will  send  it 
to  you  if  you  would  like  to  have  it.  Some  expressions 
are  remarkable:  of  the  other  points  I  think  nothing. 

"  Your  circuit  is  a  succession  of  agreeable  pictures.  I 
must  visit  North  Wales  once  more,  for  the  sake  of  Llan- 
berris — hitherto  by  some  accident  always  left  unvisitt-d, 
and,  from  report,  the  best  worth  seeing  of  all.  The 
Midland  is  always  agreeable  to  me  from  "  aulde  lang 
syne,"  and  Coltman  is  a  most  easy  and  pleasant  com- 
panion. Civil  causes  few,  but  some  of  them  rather 
heavy;  criminal  work  not  overpowering,  but  the  time 
well  filled.  The  proportion  of  entries  in  the  different 
Courts  [Queen's  Bench,  Common  Pleas,  and  Exchequer] 
almost  the  same  as  you  describe.  Our  country  is  beau- 

of  Lords  on  the  legal  points  raised  in  the  O' Council  case  during  the  Ixmg 
Vacation. 

1  Sir  Thomas  Coltman,  born  1781  ;  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
1805  ;  King's  Counsel,  1832  ;  Judge  of  Common  Pleas,  1837  ;  died  of  cholera. 
1849.  Mr.  Justice  Coltman  had  this  summer  traveled  the  Midland  Circuit 
with  the  Chief  Justice. 


i32  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1843— 

tiful  now;  the  Marshal  and  Georgiana  [present  Lord 
Denman  and  his  first  wife]  leave  us  for  Devonshire  in  a 
few  days,  and  speak  with  much  pleasure  of  seeing  you 
during  your  abode  there.1 

"  The  loss  of  Erskine*  is  indeed  grievous;  my  notion 
\.  -ild  rather  be  favorable  to  a  change  of  climate  and 
scene,  but  you  are  better  acquainted  with  his  condition." 

In  the  course  of  the  same  letter  he  avows  himself  a 
stanch  believer  in  the  personal  unity  of  Homer,  and  adds 
some  gossip  as  to  his  general  Long  Vacation  reading: 

"  I  suppose  '  Keeble's  Prselectiones '  are  in  Latin, 
which  I  can  not  relish,  but  I  like  his  Homer-worship,  and 
am  fully  convinced  of  the  falsehood  of  Payne  Knight's 
heresy  that  he  was  more  than  one.  I  should  be  glad  to 
father  the  '  Battle  of  the  Gods '  on  some  journeyman, 
but  all  the  rest  is  the  consistent  work  of  one  great 
genius,  a  man  of  the  most  enlarged  wisdom  and  the  most 
exalted  liberality — witness  those  extraordinary  speeches 
of  Hector  and  Sarpedon.  He  is  excelled  by  none  but 
Shakespeare.  [Lord]  Nugent  left  us  yesterday,  over- 
flowing with  Athens  and  Palestine,  and  I  hope  will  make 
a  readable  book  of  travels.  My  principal  study  has  been 
Burke's  '  Correspondence,'  which  verifies  Goldsmith's 
character  of  him  wonderfully.  His  unpracticality  and 
clumsiness  in  affairs  form  a  curious  contrast  to  his  noble 
character  and  gifted  mind.  I  think  it  a  most  instructive 
and  improving  work,  'Lord  Malmesbury'  [Life  of]  is 
also  very  good  reading.  The  '  Quarterly  Review  '  stim- 
ulated me  to  order  (at  our  book  club)  that  strange  so- 
called  biography  of  William  Taylor,  but  there  is  no  in- 
terest in  it,  except  the  ill-nature,  and  Lockhart  managed 
to  bring  that  all  out  in  speaking  of  his  deceased  fellow- 
laborer.  Arnold's  life  has  not  yet  come  round  to 
me.  Do  you  much  admire  his  lectures  on  history? 
Guizot's  lectures  on  European  civilization  have  also  been 
a  stutly  of  mine — rather  too  vague,  but  acute  arid  very 
sensible — they  make  me  desirous  of  knowing  his  views 

1  At  Mr.  Justice   Coleridge's  country  seat  of  Heath's  Court,  Ottery  St. 
Mary,  Devon. 

2  Right  Hon.  Thomas  Erskine,  son  of  the  great  advocate  :  born,  1788  ; 
King's  Counsel,  1827  ;  Judge  of  Common   Pleas,  1839  >    retired  from  ill- 
health,  November,  1844  ;  died  November,  1864. 


1844-]  CORRESPONDENCE.  133 

on  our  Civil  Wars.  What  he  says  in  a  letter  to  Brougham 
on  the  chances  of  war  at  present  is  nearly  in  these 
words  :  Pour  la  guerre  il  faut  que  les  fous  soient  devcnus 
les  maitres,  ou  que  les  sages  soient  devcnus  fous.  He  pro- 
ceeds to  say  that  the  clamorers  for  war  do  not  really 
wish  it,  but  only  to  remove  him,  and  that  if  they  excite 
war  they  certainly  will  get  rid  of  him,  for. he  will  not 
carry  it  on."  ' 

The  celebrated  O'Connell  case,  to  which  reference  is 
made  in  the  foregoing  letter,  will  be  reserved  for  consid- 
eration in  the  next  chapter,  the  present  one  may  be  con- 
cluded with  the  following  communication  to  his  daugh- 
ter, the  Honorable  Mrs.  Hodgson,  who,  as  wife  of  the 
Provost  of  Eton,  had  lately  been  partaking  of  the 
festivities  with  which  the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert  had 
been  welcoming  Louis  Philippe  at  Windsor  Castle  in  re- 
turn for  the  hospitality  which  the  Citizen  King  had 
shown  them,  in  the  summer  of  the  preceding  year,  at  the 
Chateau  d'Eu.2 

"Stony  Middleton:  October  20,  1844. 

"  My  dearest  Bessie, — We  were  quite  delighted  to  see 
in  the  papers  that  you  were  present  at  that  magnificent 
banquet  at  the  Castle,  and  very  thankful  for  your  sketch 
of  the  proceedings.  The  visit  to  you  at  Eton  is  a  still 
more  interesting  subject,  and  we  admire  the  behavior  of 
all  your  young  ladies,  and  expect  to  find  them  models 
of  courtesy.  What  a  happiness  that  they  and  their  dear 
parents  are  so  well. 

"Your  question  about  my  acquaintance  with  the 
French  King  (or  L.  P.,  as  Tom  styles  him)  is  a  poser. 
One  of  the  peculiarities  of  Royal  memories  is  a  faculty 
of  remembering  things  that  never  happened,  and  those 
who  remember  correctly  must  take  care  never  to  destroy 
their  illusions.  Possibly,  indeed,  His  Majesty  may  re- 
member what  I  forget.  The  mistake  about  Recorder 
and  Common  Sergeant  is  of  small  moment.  He  used 
the  latter  and  correct  title  when  Tom  and  Georgiana 
[present  Lord  Denman  and  his  first  wife]  were  presented 

1  This  was  at  the  time  of  the  excitement  caused  by  the  affair  of  Pritchard, 
the  British  Consul  at  Otaheite,  1843. 

2  Louis  Philippe,  on  this  visit,  reached  Windsor  Castle  on  October  7,  and 
returned  to  France,  accompanied  by  a  most  violent  storm,  on  the  I5th. 


i34  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1843— 

at  Paris.  Now,  it  is  possible  that  during  his  exile1  he 
may  have  made  his  appearance  before  me  on  some  un- 
lucky occasion — but  most  probably  it  would  be  under 
some  fictitious  name — at  the  Court  formerly  called  the 
Old  Bailey.  Common  people  are  not  fond  of  reverting 
to  such  occurrences,  but  with  kings  it  may  be  different. 

"  As  to  Captain  Denman — he  of  the  name  who  gave 
His  Majesty  a  passage — he  is  no  son  of  mine  ;  if  he  were 
we  must  be  counting  our  seventieth  wedding-day  at 
least,  instead  of  our  fortieth.  He  was  an  officer  of  some 
distinction,  and  commanded  a  ship  in  the  squadron 
which  took  Napoleon  to  St.  Helena.  I  remember  his 
being  afterwards  in  Burlington  Street  (Dr.  Denman's). 
I  think  he  is  still  alive. 

"  But  we  must  thank  you  both  for  your  kind  congrat- 
ulations on  our  festival,  which  passed  off  admirably.  My 
Lady  looks  handsomer  than  she  did  in  1804:  both  of  us 
are  extremely  well,  and  shall,  to  the  end  of  our  time,  be 
your  affectionate  parents. 

"  I  hope  to  look  in  at  the  Lodge  some  day  before 
Christmas.  We  are  getting  all  in  order  for  you  here 
next  summer.  I  talk  of  paying  Joe  and  his  wife  a  short 
visit  at  the  inn  at  Bolton  Abbey." 

The  "  festival  "  mentioned  in  the  concluding  sentences 
of  the  letter  just  cited  was  the  fortieth  anniversary  of 
Lord  and  Lady  Denman's  wedding-day  (October  18, 
1844).  The  expression  as  to  Lady  Denman  looking 
handsomer  at  sixty-five  than  she  did  at  twenty-five/ 
must,  of  course,  be  set  down,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the 
amiable  delusion  of  a  husband  who  had  never  ceased  to 
be  a  lover;  but  the  fact  is  that  Lady  Denman  did  pre- 
serve her  good  looks  to  a  very  advanced  period  of  her 
life.  The  strength  and  romance  of  the  attachment  that 
still  subsisted  between  Denman  and  his  wife  is  not  ill  ex- 
pressed in  the  following  simple  lines  that  had  passed  be- 
tween them,  in  this  very  year  (1844),  on  occasion  of  his 
birthday  (February  21). 

1  As  Denman  was  not  Common  Sergeant  till  1822,  and  the  exile  of  Louis 
Philippe  had  terminated  eight  years  before,  in  1814,  this  seems  not  a  possi- 
ble solution. 

•  Lady  Denman  was  born  in  November  21,  1799,  in  the  same  year  as  her 
husband,  but  about  nine  months  later. 


I844-J  CORRESPONDENCE.  135 

The  wife  writes : 

"  Noble,  genereus,  brave,  and  kind, 
Graceful  in  person  as  in  mind, 
With  manners  elegant,  and  wit  refined, 
Most  justly  is  he  loved  by  all  mankind. 
With  knowledge  deep,  and  memory  strong, 
No  worldly  motives  lead  him  wrong, 
If  thus  abroad  his  virtues  shine, 
Oh  think  how  blest  a  lot  is  mine." 

The  husband  replies : 

"  Though  well  I  know  that  Love  is  blind. 

Oft  fancying  what  no  eye  can  see, 
A  wife's  dear  praises  may  remind 
The  husband  what  he  ought  to  be." 

Those  have  not  lived  in  vain,  who,  after  forty  years 
of  wedlock,  cherish  for  each  other  such  feelings  as 
these. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  JUDGMENT  IN  O'CONNELL'S  CASE. 
A.  D.  1844.    ^ET.  65. 

THE  celebrated  judgment  in  O'Connell's  case  tended 
in  a  high  degree  to  confirm  the  public  estimate  of 
Lord  Denman  as  one  fearlessly  determined,  with 
a  single  eye  to  truth  and  justice,  and  a  total  disregard 
to  possible  ulterior  consequences,  to  carry  out  to  the 
uttermost  the  views  he  had  deliberately  formed  as  to  the 
real  rights  of  every  case  brought  before  him  for  decision. 

The  noble  and  lofty  strain  of  dignified  judicial  elo- 
quence which  pervaded  the  judgment  produced  its  full 
effect  on  all  who  read  it,  while  those  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  hear  it  will  never  forget  the  impressive  tones 
and  inimitable  manner  of  the  speaker. 

A  very  brief  sketch  of  the  previous  history  of  the 
O'Connell  case,  of  the  points  presented  for  decision  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  of  Lord  Denman's  opinion  upon 
them,  is  all  that  will  be  here  attempted. 

In  the  year  1843,  the  great  agitator  entered  upon  his 
campaign  of  "  Monster  Meetings"  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Union.  Beginning  with  an  assemblage  of  30,000  at 
Trim,  on  March  14,  the  numbers  at  these  gatherings  had 
increased,  by  August  15,  to  250,000  at  Tara,  and  on  Octo- 
ber 8,  a  still  vaster  multitude  was  expected  to  assemble 
at  Clontarf. 

The  Government  at  length  resolved  to  act  with  vigor. 
On  October  7,  they  issued  a  proclamation  prohibiting  the 
Clontarf  meeting  for  the  next  day ;  on  the  I4th,  O'Con- 
nell (with  others)  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  conspir- 
acy and  sedition;  on  February  12,  1844,  after  a  pro- 
tracted trial,  he  was  convicted  ;  and  on  May  24,  after 
long  arguments  before  the  Irish  Court  of  Queen's  Ijt-nch. 


i844-J     JUDGMENT IN  O'CONNELLS  CASE.        137 

he  was  sentenced  to  a  year's  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of 
£2,000. 

A  writ  of  error  having  been  moved  for,  two  principal 
objections  against  the  validity  of  this  sentence  were 
argued  before  the  House  of  Lords. 

The  first  objection  was  this:  that  sixty  names  of  qual- 
ified special  jurors  had  been  improperly  omitted  from 
the  list  sent  by  the  Recorder  to  the  Sheriff  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  up  the  jurors'  book  and  special  jurors' 
list,  and  that  the  array  selected  for  the  trial  of  O'Connell 
was  made  up  from  the  list  so  mutilated. 

This  objection  had  been  taken  at  the  trial,  and  the 
array  challenged  (i.  e.  objected  to)  on  this  ground.  It  had 
also  been  argued  on  demurrer  to  the  challenge  of  the 
array  before  the  Judges  of  the  Queen's  Bench  in  Ireland, 
sitting  in  Bane,  and  by  them,  with  only  one  dissenting 
voice,  overruled. 

The  second  objection,  though  not  completely  techni- 
cal, was  more  so  than  the  first.  It  arose  thus :  The  in- 
dictment was  of  monstrous  length,  and  contained  several 
counts  (or  separate  charges).  Some  of  these  counts  were 
held  to  be  void  in  law.  Yet  the  verdict  and  judgment 
were  general ;  that  is,  given  generally  upon  the  whole  of 
the  indictment,  not  separately  on  each  separate  count  of 
the  indictment.  The  objection  was  that  such  general 
judgment  was  bad,  and  could  not  be  taken  to  apply  to 
the  good  counts  only.  This  objection  had  not  been 
taken  before  the  Irish  Judges. 

The  first  objection  was  obviously  the  more  substantial, 
for  it  was  founded  on  this — that  the  accused  party  was 
not  tried  by  such  a  jury  as  by  law  he  had  a  right  to 
be  tried  by. 

The  Judges  of  England,  as  is  usual  in  cases  of  great 
difficulty,  were  summoned  to  give  the  House  of  Lords 
the  benefit  of  their  opinion  on  both  points. 

With  the  single  exception  of  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge, 
who,  though  too  ill  to  attend  the  House,  had  intimated 
in  writing  to  Lord  Denman  that  he  inclined  to  think  the 
mutilation  of  the  jury-list  a  good  ground  of  challenge  to 
the  array,  all  the  Judges  of  England  were  unanimously 
against  the  first  objection. 

With  regard  to  the  second  objection,  six  of  the  English 


138  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN  [1844. 

Judges  thought  it  invalid,  against  two  (Parke  and  Colt- 
man)  who  were  of  the  contrary  opinion. 

The  weight  of  judicial  authority,  therefore,  preponder- 
ated immensely  against  both  the  objections. 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  where  judgment  was  pro- 
nounced on  September  4,  the  majority  was  the  other 
way  :  Lords  Lyndhurst  and  Brougham  were  against  the 
validity  of  the  objections  ;  Lords  (Tottenham,  Campbell, 
and  Denman  in  favor  of  it.  The  majority  prevailed,  the 
sentence  was  quashed,  and  O'Connell  released  from 
custody. 

No  one  in  the  profession  of  the  law  now  doubts  that 
on  both  points  the  judgment  of  the  majority  of  the  Law 
Lords  was  right,  and  there  is,  perhaps,  no  judgment  on 
record  which  has  had  a  more  wholesome  effect  in  curing 
the  looseness  of  the  previous  practice  of  Criminal  Courts, 
both  in  England  and  Ireland. 

It  required  some  moral  courage  to  pronounce  a  de- 
cision in  direct  contravention  to  so  vast  a  preponderance 
(in  fact,  as  regards  the  first  objection,  to  so  close  an  ap- 
proach to  absolute  unanimity)  of  opinion  on  the  part  of 
the  Judges  of  England.  But,  Denman,  clear  in  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  own  opinion,  and  animated  by  a  high 
sense  of  duty,  was  superior  to  any  feelings  of  moral  tim- 
orousness  on  an  occasion  like  this.  Admitting  that  the 
Lords  were  bound  to  respect  in  the  highest  degree,  and 
consider  with  the  utmost  care,  the  opinion  of  the  judges, 
he  added  :  "  But,  my  Lords,  you  have  a  duty  of  your 
own  to  perform.  Your  consciences  are  to  be  satisfied, 
your  minds  are  to  be  made  up;  your  privilege  affords 
you  the  assistance  of  the  most  learned  men  living,  but 
your  duty  forbids  you  to  delegate  your  office  to  them.'' 

'In  order  fully  to  appreciate  the  vigor  and  closeness  of 
his  arguments,  the  masterly  judgment  of  Lord  Denman 
must  be  studied  in  its  entirety;  an  extract  here  and 
there  will,  however,  serve  to  indicate  generally  the  line 
of  its  reasoning,  and  to  show  the  loftiness  and  earnest- 
ness of  its  tone. 

The  key-note  is  struck  in  the  very  opening  sentences, 
which  conclude  with  the  memorable  phrase  which  has 
ever  since  become  one  of  the  household  words  of  the 
English  language  : 


1844.]     JUDGMENT IN  O'CONNELUS  CASE.       139 

"My  Lords,  in  considering  the  important  questions  in- 
volved in  the  case  now  before  your  lordships,  it  appears 
to  me  convenient  to  advert,  in  the  first  place,  to  that 
which  has  been  last  argued  by  my  noble  and  learned 
friend  who  has  just  sat  down  [Lord  Brougham] — I  mean 
the  objection  to  the  judgment  given  in  the  Court  below, 
allowing  the  demurrer  to  the  challenge  to  the  array. 

"  I  am  induced  to  begin  with  this  subject,  not  only  be- 
cause it  is  preliminary  in  the  course  of  the  proceedings, 
but  because  it  is  important,  to  a  degree  that  does  not 
admit  of  exaggeration,  to  the  administration  of  justice 
throughout  the  United  Kingdom;  for,  if  it  is  possible 
that  such  a  practice  as  that  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
present  instance  should  be  allowed  to  pass  without  rem- 
edy (and  no  other  remedy  than  that  of  the  challenge  to 
the  array  has  been  suggested),  trial  by  jury  itself,  instead 
of  being'  a  security  to  persons  who  arc  accused,  will  be  a 
MOCKERY,  a  DELUSION,  and  a  SNARE." 

The  narrow  ground  upon  which  the  Judges  had  held 
that  the  challenge  to  the  array  (admittedly  the  only 
remedy)  was  not  open  to  the  defendant  was  this:  that 
challenge  to  the  array,  as  the  precedents  proved,  could 
only  be  allowed  in  cases  where  there  had  been  default  by 
the  Sheriff,  whereas,  in  the  case  under  argument,  there 
had  been  no  default  in  the  Sheriff;  the  mutilation  of  the 
list  had  not  been  the  act  of  the  Sheriff,  but  of  the  Re- 
corder or  other  functionary  who  had  delivered  the  list, 
already  mutilated,  into  the  Sheriff's  hands. 

Against  this,  view,  which  made  the  remedy  of  the 
aggrieved  party  depend  not  upon  the  question  whether 
he  had  or  had  not  been  tried  by  a  lawfully  constituted 
jury,  but  upon  the  question,  wholly  foreign  to  him, 
whether  the  Sheriff  had  or  had  not  been  a  wrong-doer, 
Denman  thus  protested  : 

"  The  traversers  (defendants)  have  challenged  the  array 
on  account  of  the  fraudulent  omission  of  sixty  names 
from  the  list  of  jurors  of  the  County  of  the  City  of  Dub- 
lin. The  Attorney-General  demurs  to  that  challenge, 
admitting  thereby  that  that  fact  has  taken  place.1  It 

1  It  is-a  familiar  doctrine  in  law  that  he  who  demurs,  i.  e.  objects  to  the 
legal  sufficiency  of  any  claim  or  defense,  admits  the  truth  of  all  the  facts 
stated  therein.  The  wrongful  omission  of  the  sixty  names  was,  therefore. 


i4o  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1844. 

appears  to  me  that  that  challenge  ought  to  have  been 
allowed.  I  think  that  the  principle  of  Challenge  to  the 
Array  is  not  confined  to  the  narrow  issue  whether  the 
Sheriff  has  done  wrong,  but  involves  that  larger  question 
whether  the  party  has  had  the  security  of  trial  by  a  law- 
ful jury  of  his  county." 

With  great  force  and  cogency  of  argument,  the  Chief 
Justice,  on  bases  not  to  be  shaken,  established  this  point, 
that  the  true  principle  of 'the  Challenge  to  the  Array  is  tlie 
party's  security  that  a  jury  shall  be  fairly  taken  ;  and 
that  if  not  fairly  taken,  he  has  a  right  to  say  he  has  not 
been  lawfully  tried,  and  on  that  ground  to  demand  the 
reversal  of  any  adverse  verdict  that  such  a  jury  may  have 
given  against  him. 

With  regard  to  the  argument  of  the  practical  incon- 
venience that  might  arise  from  visiting  with  conse- 
quences so  serious  the  culpable  carelessness  of  the 
ministerial  functionary  of  the  Court,  be  he  Sheriff,  or 
other  officer  upon  whom  by  Act  of  Parliament  has  been 
cast  a  portion  of  the  Sheriffs  duty,  Lord  Denman's  mode 
of  dealing  with  it  is  conclusive  :  "  I  humbly  ask,"  he 
says,  "  what  balance  is  there  between  the  two  sets  of  in- 
convenient consequences?  Is  it  not  right  to  hold  the 
public  officer  to  the  strict  and  faithful  discharge  of  his 
easy  duty  ?  Can  anything  be  more  wrong  than  that  he 
should  enjoy  full  license  to  tamper  with  these  sacrsd 
documents  [the  jury  lists]  according  to  his  pleasure?" 

But  perhaps  no  part  of  the  judgment  is  more  conclu- 
sive and  convincing  than  that  which  points  out  that  if 
the  Challenge  to  the  Array  be  excluded  a  great  and  ad- 
mitted wrong  would  be  left  absolutely  without  remedy  or 
redress : 

"  Now,  my  Lords,  what  follows  appears  to  me  to  be  of 
the  very  highest  importance.  That  there  may  be  the 
greatest  wrong  and  injury  committed  by  the  omission  of 
names  from  the  list  is  universally  acknowledged.  And 
the  Chief  Justice1  says,  '  that  there  must  be  some  mod  > 
of  relief  for  an  injury  occasioned  by  such  non-observance 

admitted  in  this  case  by  the  demurrer  to  the  challenge,  because  such  fact 
was  stated  as  the  ground  of  challenge. 

1  Tindal,  who  had  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  Judges  on  the  first 
objection. 


T844-]     JUDGMENT  IN O' CONN  ELL'S  CASE.       141 

of  the  directions  of  an  Act  of  Parliament  is  undeniable.' 
So  all  the  judges  in  Ireland  still  more  emphatically 
assert.  So  says  my  noble  and  learned  friend  on  the  wool- 
sack [Lord  Lyndhurst].  So  says  my  noble  and  learned 
friend  who  has  just  addressed  your  lordships  [Lord 
Brougham].  What,  then,  is  the  mode  of  relief? 

"  My  noble  and  learned  friend  on  the  woolsack  did 
certainly  raise  my  expectations  to  a  very  high  pitch  upon 
the  subject.  In  one  part  of  his  argument  he  said,  '  The 
party  is  not  without  a  remedy :  the  party  can  set  him- 
self right.  There  may  have  been  a  great  error,  a  great 
injury,  a  great  mistake,  but  there  is  a  correction  of  that 
mistake  :  there  is  a  redress  for  that  error;  there  is  a  pre- 
vention of  future  injustice  by  such  a  trial  as  the  law 
never  contemplates,  and  would  not  have  endured.'  Then 
I  wanted  to  hear  from  that  high  authority  what  is  that 
remedy?  what  is  that  redress?  and  what  is  that  mode  of 
preventing  one  of  the  Queen's  subjects  accused  from 
being  tried  by  such  a  jury  as  the  law  never  provided  for 
him?  'Oh,'  says  my  noble  and  learned  friend,  'you 
must  excuse  me  there.  I  shall  put  off  telling  you  what 
the  remedy  is  to  some  future  occasion  ' — as  if  any  occa- 
sion could  more  pressingly  require  that  statement. 

"  When  my  Lord  Chief  Justices  and  the  other  learned 
Judges  of  England,  and  the  learned  Judges  of  Ireland, 
and  my  Lord  Chancellor,  can  inform  us  of  no  remedy 
whatever  against  this,  which  is  admitted  to  be  possibly 
the  greatest  wrong,  and  productive  of  the  greatest  con- 
fusion and  interference  with  the  security  of  the  law 
which  it  is  possible  for  man  to  contemplate,  I  will  ven- 
ture to  go  a  step  further,  and  to  declare  affirmatively  that 
(supposing  the  challenge  to  the  array  to  be  excluded)  the 
law  provides  no  remedy  ;  and  I  will  not  believe  that  the 
law  can  have  placed  its  subjects  in  such  a  situation.  Unless 
I  see  the  old  and  well-known  constitutional  practice  of 
challenge  to  the  array — founded  primarily  on  the  princi- 
ple of  the  array  being  itself  incorrect  and  injurious  to  the 
party,  although  involving  also  the  question  of  criminal- 
ity in  the  Sheriff  as  an  officer  of  the  Court — unless  I  see 
that  ancient  process  repealed  by  a  direct  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment— I  will  not  believe  that  that  remedy  is  not  still 
reserved  to  the  subject.  The  absence  of  all  other  remedy 


1 42  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1844, 

in  a  case  of  such  immense  importance  is  to  me  demonstra- 
tive proof  that  that  old  remedy  still  exists,  that  the  objec- 
tion has  been  well  taken,  that  the  challenge  ought  to  havs 
been  a! lowed — and  that  the  trial  has  erroneously  proceeded. 
It"  this  be  otherwise,  if  the  old  redress  is  abrogated  and 
no  new  one  provided,  that  improved  law,  which  \vas  in- 
tended to  place  the  constitution  of  juries  beyond  all 
abuse  and  all  suspicion,  would  have  the  effect  of  secur- 
ing success  to  the  worst  manoeuvres,  and  of  unsettling 
the  public  confidence  in  the  most  important  function  of 
justice." 

Not  less  powerful,  though  from  the  more  technical 
nature  of  the  reasons  less  generally  interesting,  was  his 
argument  on  the  other  objection,  namely,  that  a  Gen- 
eral Judgment  on  an  indictment  containing  many 
counts,  some  of  which  were  admitted  to  be  bad,  could 
not  be  supported. 

That  the  objection,  indeed,  was  not  wholly  of  a  tech- 
nical character  he  very  clearly  pointed  out.  '*  So  far 
from  being  merely  technical,"  he  said,  "  it  may  involve 
the  greatest  injustice,  because  you  may  inflict  the  heaviest 
punishment  for  the  lightest  offense,  or,  indeed,  for  that 
which  may  turn  out  to  be  no  subject  of  punishment  at 
all."  In  another  part  of  his  judgment  he  puts  the  same 
point  still  more  tersely.  "  To  pass  sentence  for  three 
offenses,  where  a  party  is  well  convicted  of  only  two, 
can  not  be  right;." 

In  this  part  of  his  argument,  Lord  Denman  animad- 
verted with  becoming  severity  on  an  abuse  which  was 
then  prevalent  in  English  Criminal  Law  procedure,  and 
which,  though  since  much  abated  by  legislative  enact- 
ment, has  not  yet  wholly  been  got  rid  of — the  cumbrous 
length  and  formality  of  criminal  indictments,  especially 
those  for  conspiracy  and  kindred  offenses. 

"I  must  take  the  liberty,"  he  said,  "  of  throwing  out 
the  observation  that  in  my  opinion,  there  can  not  be  a 
much  greater  grievance  or  oppression  than  these  end- 
less, voluminous,  and  unintelligible  indictments.  An 
indictment  which  fills  fifty-seven  close  folio  pages,1  is  an 
abuse  to  be  put  down,  not  a  practice  to  be  encouraged." 

The  judgment  of  Lord  Denman  and  the  majority  of 
'As  did  the  indictment  in  O'Connell's  case. 


844.  J     JUDGMENT  IN  O'CONN  ELL'S  CASE.     143 

the  House  of  Lords  on  this  second  objection,  has  since 
been  universally  followed  in  the  administration  of  the 
Criminal  Law.  It  is,  indeed,  obvious,  when  once  pointed 
out,  that,  as  every  count  states  a  distinct  offense,  the 
verdict  ought  also  to  state  upon  what  particular  counts 
the  jury  find  a  prisoner  guilty,  and  the  judgment  ought 
to  follow  the  verdict.  The  decision  in  O'Connell's  case 
has  entirely  put  an  end  to  the  loose  practice  which  had 
so  long  prevailed,  of  giving  a  general  verdict  and  judgment 
on  an  indictment  comprising  several  distinct  charges.1 

Lord  Denman's  admirable  judgment,  though,  of 
course,  the  result  of  long  and  anxious  research  and  re- 
flection, was  mainly  oral,  and,  in  its  language,  extem- 
poraneous. This  circumstance,  undoubtedly,  added 
very  much  to  its  effect  in  delivery,  and  enabled  those 
references  to  be  made  to  the  arguments  of  previous 
speakers  which  so  much  enhance  the  spirit  and  anima- 
tion of  a  spoken  discourse,  but  are,  of  course,  impossible 
in  a  written  composition. 

A  writer  in  the  Morning  Post,  not  favorable  to  the  con- 
clusion arrived  at  by  the  majority  of  the  Law  Lords, 
had  expressed  himself,  in  reference  to  Lord  Denman's 
judgment,  to  the  following  effect : 

"  The  dignified  impressiveness  of  his  Lordship's  man- 
ner, and  the  graceful  earnestness  of  his  elocution,  are 
such,  that  they  not  only  engage  the  attention,  but 
almost  win  the  assent  of  any  feeling  auditory,  even  be- 
fore the  subject-matter  is  fully  compassed  by  the  under- 
standing." 

The  Morning  Chronicle  of  the  following  day,  com- 
menting on  this  passage,  observed: 

"  Whoever  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  present  on  the 
occasion,  will  certainly  never  forget  the  effect  produced 

1  The  advocate  who  had  the  great  merit  of  raising  and  arguing  with  rare 
abiliiy  this  new  and  important  point  was  Mr.  (now  the  Right  Hon.  Sir 
Barnes)  Peacock,  formerly  legal  member  of  the  Supreme  Council  in  India, 
and  Chief  Justice  of  Calcutta,  now  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peal. A  strong  proof  how  long  bad  law  may  prevail  if  not  questioned,  is  to 
be  found  in  Lord  Denman's  frank  avowal :  "  I  felt,  as  my  learned  brothers 
did,  great  surprise  when  I  heard  the  most  able  and  ingenious  argument  that 
was  rddressed  to  the  Mouse  on  this  point,  and  I  confess  I  had  never  felt  any 
doubt  on  the  subject  till  that  argument  was  submitted  to  my  mind.  But 
I  mu.st  add  that  I  never  had  occasion  to  give  judicial  consideration  to  the 
matter." 


144  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1844. 

by  the  qualities  which  our  contemporary  describes.  But 
we  confidently  believe,  that,  however  much  that 
audience  was  overpowered  by  the  noble  delivery  of  no- 
ble sentiments,  gushing  forth  with  hearth-warm  sincerity 
in  the  defense  of  liberty,  and  finding  utterance  in  a  voice 
of  incomparable  beauty,  still,  the  force  of  his  Lordship's 
arguments  upon  the  reason  of  his  hearers,  must  have 
been  equal  to  that  of  his  personal  qualities  on  their  sesn- 
ibility  ;  and  that,  after  the  subject-matter  had  been  '  fully 
compassed  by  the  understanding,'  the  calm  decision  of 
their  intellects  must  have  confirmed  all  the  preposses- 
sions that  had  previously  been  produced  on  the  feelings." 

The  action  of  the  speaker  was  not  less  impressive  than 
his  delivery :  his  son  George  (now  the  Honorable 
Mr.  Justice  Denman),  who  was  present,  was  particularly 
struck  by  the  mode  in  which  he  expressed  his  sense 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  law  had  been  violated  by 
the  mutilation  of  the  jury  list:  "This,  my  Lords,"  he 
said,  holding  a  long  slip  of  paper  in  his  hand,  "  is  the 
jury  panel  to  which  the  defendants  had  a  right  by  law, 
and  this,"  he  added,  tearing  off  a  third  and  holding  up 
the  residue,  "  this  is  all  that,  in  fact,  the  defendants  had 
allowed  them."  ' 

The  effect  of  the  judgment  on  the  profession  and  the 
public  was  great  and  instantaneous,  and  Denman  received 
from  all  competent  quarters  the  warmest  assurances  of 
adhesion  to  the  opinions  he  had  pronounced,  and  of  ad- 
miration for  the  fearlessness  and  ability  with  which  he 
had  expressed  them. 

The  general  opinion  of  the  more  enlightened  part  of 
the  public  was  thus  well  expressed  by  the  Morning 
Chronicle,  then  the  leading  organ  of  the  Opposition  : 

"  This  masterly  judgment  will  transmit  the  name  of 
Lord  Denman  with  the  highest  luster  to  the  remotest 
posterity,  as  long  as  the  people  of  this  country  shall  con- 
tinue, and  we  hope  that  to  the  end  of  all  time  they  will 
continue,  to  be  distinguished  for  their  irrepressible 
attachment  to  the  principles  of  civil  liberty,  and  their 

1  Mr.  Justice  Denman  adds  a  curious  circumstance.  Walking  down  with 
his  father  from  the  House  after  the  delivery  of  the  judgment,  and  praising, 
among  other  things,  the  celebrated  words,  "  a  mockery,  a  delusion,  and  a 
snare."  "  Ah,"  said  Lord  Denman,  "  I  am  sorry  I  used  those  words  ;  they 
were  not  judicial." 


1844.]     JUDGMENT  IN  O' CONN  ELL'S  CASE.     143 

determination  to  secure  at  all  hazards  the  immaculate 
administration  of  justice." 

Of  the  many  letters  which  Denman  at  this  time 
received  on  the  subject  of  his  judgment,  few  gratified 
him  more  than  one  written  to  him  by  Shadwell — the 
comrade  of  his  school  and  college  days,  and  the  intimate 
of  his  maturer  years,  the  excellent  and  warm-hearted 
man  of  whose  long  and  close  connection  with  his  father, 
his  son  George  has  written  :  "  Intimate  at  Eton,  at  Cam  • 
bridge,  and  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  they  may  be  said  to  have 
gone  through  life  arm-in-arm  together." 

The  Vice-Chancellor,  who  was  then  enjoying  his  Long 
Vacation  in  the  country,  wrote  as  follows : 

"Studley  Park:  September  7,  1844. 

"  My  dear  Denman, — Yesterday  the  papers  arrived  at 
the  place  where  I  haopened  to  be  by  the  sea-side,  in 
Durham.  I  immediately  sat  down  to  read  the  speeches 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  which  appeared  to  be  given 
verbatim,  and,  except  a  few  errors  in  the  names  of  cases, 
&c.,  accurately. 

"  The  speeches  of  yourself  and  the  Chancellor  [Lynd- 
hurst]  appeared  to  me  to  be  remarkably  characteristic, 
and  I  was  so  much  pleased  with  the  display  of  the 
natural  firmness  and  nobility  of  mind  exhibited  in 
your  speech,  that  I  could  talk  of  nothing  else  and 
think  of  nothing  else.  I  allude  especially  to  what 
you  said  as  to  the  challenge  of  the  array.  Every- 
thing seemed  so  fair-  and  so  just,  so  consistent  with 
the  Saxon  notions  exemplified  in  our  early  history, 
that  I  could  not  help  feeling  in  how  distinguished  a 
position  you  were  placed  by  the  sentiments  that  you 
uttered,  and  which  I  know  you  have  cherished  from 
the  time  when  we  first  met  together  as  friends.  I  was 
so  full  of  this  feeling  of  admiration  that  I  could  not 
help  sending  you  a  line  to  tell  you  so.  I  think  it  is 
a  matter  of  great  importance  that  the  question  on  the 
writ  of  error  has  been  decided  in  a  manner  that  proves 
the  fairness  with  which  law  is  administered  in  this 
great  and  glorious  country,  with  such  a  Chief  Justice  at 
its  head.  "  Believe  me,  dear  Denman, 

"  Ever  yours,  very  sincerely, 
11  LAUNCELOT  SHADWELL. 

II.— 10 


146  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1844. 

His  friend,  Empson,  Jeffrey's  son-in-law,  at  that  time 
Principal  of  Haileybury  College,  and  Editor  of  the 
"  Edinburgh  Review,"  writes  as  follows,  looking  at  the 
matter  from  a  somewhat  different  and  more  political  point 
of  view: 

"A  few  words  only,  my  dear  Denman,  to  tell  you  with 
what  delight  Jeffrey  and  myself  read  your  judgment  yes- 
terday. It  is  quite  a  relief  to  me,  a  burden  and  a  blot  off 
my  mind,  that  this  Irish  trial  is  got  rid  of — judicially  ex- 
punged— and  the  public  satisfied.  What  I  feel  at  it  is 
very  much  heightened  by  the  part  you  have  taken  in  it  ; 
especially  in  all  you  say  about  the  jury  system.  Looking 
at  the  subject  in  another  point  of  view,  one  may  fairly 
hope  that  the  moral  and  political  effect  of  this  judgment 
will  tell  more  decidedly  against  the  alleged  facts,  reason- 
ings, and  feelings,  by  which  the  Repeal  steam  has  been 
got  up,  than  anything  else  that  has  been  or  that  could 
have  been  done." 

With  the  probable  political  consequences  of  his  judg- 
ment, Denman  had,  of  course,  nothing  to  do,  when  de- 
livering his  opinion,  as  one  of  the  Law  Lords,  on  the 
writ  of  error.  But  it  was  the  general,  and  probably  not 
ill-founded  belief  of  reasonable  men  at  the  time,  that 
the  release  of  O'Connell  was  a  fortunate  circumstance 
for  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Government.  The  vigor  which  had 
been  shown,  had,  for  the  time,  completely  disconcerted 
the  Repealers,1  while  the  executive  were  spared  the 
necessity  of  carrying  out  sentences  which  would  have 
exasperated  Ireland  from  one  end  to  the  other,  stirring 
up  to  a  fierce  fever  heat  the  ever-ready  hatred  which  is 
the  sad,  and  it  would  almost  seem  the  unappeasable, 
Nemesis  for  long  centuries  of  misgovernment  and 
wrong. 

Denman  seems  himself  to  have  been  of  opinion  that 
the  political  effect  of  the  reversal  of  the  sentence  would 
probably  be  beneficial,  at  least  for  a  time.  Writing 
from  Middleton,  on  September  29,  to  his  brother-in-law, 
the  Rev.  R.  Vevers,  he  says : 

1  The  sentence  destroyed  O'Connell's  prestige,  and  prayed  upon  his  health 
and  spirits.  He  never  recovered  the  shock,  and  died  a  broken  man  less 
than  three  years  afterwards,  on  his  way  to  Rome,  at  Genoa,  on  May  15, 
X»47,  aet.  seventy-two. 


1844.]     JUDGMENT  IN  O'CONNELL'S  CASE.     147 

"I  rejoice  in  your  agreement  with  me,  in  thinking  that 
the  decision  of  the  6th  instant  may  have  a  good  effect 
in  Ireland.  Of  course  we,  who  had  to  consider  points 
of  law  only,  could  have  nothing  to  do  with  conse- 
quences, but  it  is  delightful  to  think  that  these  are  also 
likely  to  be  beneficial.  My  speech  is  about  to  be  pub- 
lished separately,  and  it  must  have  the  effect  of  reform- 
ing the  scandalous  abuses  that  have  prevailed  in  the 
selection  of  juries  in  Ireland.  I  must  tell  you  that  Cole- 
ridge (who  agreed  with  me  about  the  array)  writes  me 
word  that  he  is  much  inclined  to  think  the  Lords  right 
on  the  counts  also,  and  that  Erskine's  leaning  is  the  same 
way.  Thus,  the  majority  of  the  English  Judges  is 
materially  diminished,  and  the  argument  is  really  too 
clear  for  doubt.  Paragraphs  are  now  and  then  sent  me 
showing  how  greatly  O'Connell's  animosity  is  tamed  by 
the  reversal." ' 

A  few  days  before,  on  September  20,  Denman  had 
written  to  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge  a  letter,  the  following 
passages  from  which  are  of  some  interest  in  reference  to 
what  took  place  both  before  and  at  the  time  of  the  de- 
livery of  Judgment  on  September  4: 

*'  Tindal's  inconsiderate  statement  of  your  opinion  [as 
coinciding  with  that  of  the  rest  of  the  Judges  on  the 
first  objection]  left  me  no  alternative  but  to  read  your 
letter,  which  at  once  qualified  the  unanimity  on  the 
array.  The  week  before  our  appointed  day  of  meeting, 
Brougham  wrote  to  me  on  the  subject  of  his  Insolvency 
Bill  (he  is  called  'The  Liberator  ')*  and  my  answer  told 
him  of  my  doubts  on  the  array.  He  said  he  had  felt  no 

1  The  immediate  effect  of  the  judgment  in  Ireland  may  be  gathered  from 
the  following  paragraphs  from  the  Dublin  Evening  Post  ;  "  It  would  be 
an  idle  attempt — we  acknowledge  it — to  express  adequately  the  veneration 
we  feei  for  the  three  Whig  Lords  who  saved  England  and  the  Empire  from 
the  infamy  of  confirming  the  judgment  of  the  Irish  Judges,  and  it  is  needless 
to  add  that  we  are  utterly  incapable  of  finding  words  to  express  our  admira- 
tion for  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England.  While  he  lives — and  long,  long 
may  he  enjoy  his  honors,  and  his  dignity,  and  his  fame  !  long  may  England 
glory  in  her  first  Judge,  as  Ireland  shall  long  remember  him  with  gratitude 
and  exultation — as  long  as  Denman  lives  no  such  gross  injustice  will  be 
allowed  to  go  unstigmatized  or  unpunished.  The  example  will  be  enduring 
as  the  Constitution." 

*  From  his  bill  proposing  to  abolish  imprisonment  for  debt.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  "the  Liberator"  was  then  the  Irish  name  foi 
O'Connell. 


i48  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1844. 

doubt,  but  would  reconsider  it.  On  the  Monday  night 
we  had  some  talk  on  it :  the  following  day  I  gave  him 
my  collection  to  read.  He  returned  them  at  night,  say- 
ing he  had  read  them  with  much  fruit,  but  without  con- 
viction. In  the  meantime,  Parke  [Mr.  Baron  Parke, 
afterwards  Lord  Wensleydale]  had  stated  his  doubts  on 
the  second  point  [as  to  the  counts].  On  this  point  my 
mind  had  undergone  exactly  the  same  fluctuations  that 
you  describe.  I  saw  no  answer  to  his  arguments,  and 
am  convinced  there  is  none.  But  I  prayed  for  a  consul- 
tation of  the  five  Law  Lords  on  the  Wednesday  morn- 
ing, not  without  some  idea  that  my  doubts  [on  the 
counts]  might  be  removed,  nor  without  some  hopes  that 
Lyndhurst  might  be  convinced  [on  the  first  point,  as  to 
the  array],  and  that  on  this  point,  after  another  day's 
consideration,  Brougham  might  give  way.  This  was  not 
thought  expedient.  Nothing  could  be  better  in  language 
and  manner  than  Lyndhurst's  speech,  but  his  clearness 
only  served  to  light  up  the  hollow  vacuity  of  his  case. 
I  spoke  with  due  preparation  and  great  care.  Brougham 
read  his  judgment.  It  fell  to  me,  as  next  in  seniority, 
to  follow  him.  I  had  prepared  a  written  judgment  on 
the  array,  much  fuller  and  better  than  what  I  delivered 
but,  having  written  nothing  on  the  second  point  [the 
counts],  I  thought  it  best  to  speak  all.  Cottenham  and 
Campbell  had  both  written.  I  am  perfectly  confident 
of  the  assent  of  the  £i?  j^ev  emara^evo?  who  can  read 
and  think,  and  will  lead  the  tpi?  pvpioi,  and  I  shall  still 
call  the  avapidpoi,  ovdei?  knowing  that  they  have  had 
but  one  principle  of  judging,  namely — '  Dan  is  in  prison, 
#nd  it  is  much  the  best  place  for  him.'  Tom  diverts  me  by 
a  quotation  from  Woolner:  '  He  was  misled  by  that 
crotchet,  Trial  by  Jury.'  " 

On  the  second  objection,  the  two  Judges  who  gave 
their  opinion  in  favor  of  it,  against  the  six  who  opposed 
it,  were  Parke  and  Coltman.  There  were  people  found 
base  enough  to  insinuate  that  Parke,  in  giving  his  judg- 
ment on  this  point,  had  been  influenced  by  resentment 
against  the  Government,  for  having,  in  the  preceding 
April,  appointed  the  then  Attorney-General,  Sir  Fred- 
erick Pollock,  instead  of  himself,  to  be  Chief  Baron  of 
the  Exchequer  on  Lord  Abinger's  death.  It  is  to  this 


1844-]     JUDGMENT  IN  O*  CON  NELL'S  CASE.       149 

base  and  ridiculously  groundless  imputation  that  refer- 
ence is  made  in  the  following  passage  from  the  letter 
now  under  citation : 

"The  leaning  of  your  opinion  and  Erskine's  [in  favor 
of  the  second  objection]  is  to  me  a  very  pleasing  cir- 
cumstance, nor  can  I  doubt  that  if  more  time  and  pains 
had  been  taken,  other  Judges  might  have  come  round. 
The  interests  of  justice  and  the  cause  of  truth  are  in- 
finitely indebted  to  Parke,  who  kept  not  only  his  politi- 
cal feelings,  but  his  personal  fear  of  imputations,  which 
were  sure  to  be  cast,  and  which  were  cast.  '  If  he  had 
but  been  made  Chief  Baron.'  His  weight  of  authority 
required  much  less  courage  in  me  in  coming  to  the  right 
decision  [on  the  second  point]  than  if  Coltman  had 
stood  alone,  though  I  hope  that  even  then  I  should  have 
seen  the  right  and  acted  on  it."1 

A  still  fuller  account  of  many  of  the  circumstances 
attending  this  celebrated  judgment,  and  particularly  of 
the  rapidity  with  which  Denman  had  in  the  end  to  make 
up  his  mind  on  the  question  of  the  counts,  is  contained 
in  the  following  letter  to  his  son-in-law,  H.  W.  Macaulay, 
the  brother  of  Lord  Macaulay,  and  first  husband  of  Den- 
man's  fourth  daughter,  Margaret,  a  gentleman  for  whose 
character  and  talents  his  father-in-law  had  a  high  esteem, 
and  who  was  then  residing  with  his  wife  and  children  at 
Buena  Vista,  Cape  de  Verde  Islands  : 

"  Middleton :  September  9,  1844. 

"  My  dear  Henry, — I  thought  my  proximity  to  head- 
quarters would  make  it  worth  your  while  to  hear  from 
me  on  the  O'Connell  case,  and  I  proceed  to  the  perform- 
ance of  my  promise  by  telling  you  that  after  fagging 
hard  at  the  legal  points  in  it,  I  set  off  by  rail  on  Sep- 
tember i,  reached  home  late  in  the  evening,  and  saw  no 
one  but  George  [now  Mr.  Justice  Denman],  till  both  he 
and  I  went  to  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  2nd. 

"  Tindal  pronounced  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the 
Judges  on  nine  of  the  eleven  questions  submitted.  The 

1  In  reference  to  this  base  imputation,  Denman,  in  his  letter  of  September 
29.  to  his  brother-in-law,  had  said,  "  Pray  if  your  county  paper  contains  any 
extracts  from  Herald  or  Standard,  imputing  Parke's  opinion  to  his  disap- 
pointment in  not  being  made  Chief  Baron,  take  the  trouble  of  either  send- 
ing me  the  paper  or  copying  the  paragraph." 


1 5o  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [i3.J4. 

third  and  the  eleventh,  on  which  a  difference  existed, 
were  resolvable  into  one  [the  question  of  the  counts]. 

"  But  I  had  conceived  an  inveterate  opinion  that  the 
jury  was  unlawfully  composed.  Coleridge,  with  whom  I 
had  had  some  correspondence,  warmly  agreed  with  me 
on  this  point. 

"  On  the  other  point  [that  of  the  counts],  Parke  and 
Coltman  dissented  from  the  general  opinion  of  the  judges. 
To  this  point  I  had  given  comparatively  little  attention, 
and  was  bound  to  examine  it  with  care. 

"  George  and  I  dined  at  Brougham's  on  Monday.  On 
Tuesday  he  took  us  to  his  brother-in-law's  (Eden)  at 
Wimbledon,  where  we  dined  and  slept.  Two  pleasanter 
evenings  I  never  passed,  but  Brougham  and  I  could  not 
agree  on  the  controversy. 

"  On  Wednesday  morning  (the  4th),  all  resorted  again 
to  the  Lords,  and  the  papers  will  inform  you  what  passed 
there.  They,  however,  do  not  know  that  I  had  hardly 
made  up  my  mind  on  the  third  and  eleventh  questions 
[the  counts],  and  expected  that  all  the  Law  Lords  would 
have  a  meeting  and  talk  the  matter  over  before  we  gave 
our  judgment.  At  the  last  moment  I  was  told  that  this 
could  not  be,  and  had  to  consider  the  arguments  of  the 
Chancellor  [Lyndhurst]  and  Brougham  before  I  delivered 
or  had  even  finally  formed  my  own  opinion. 

"  I  must  say  that  on  both  the  points  the  law  came  out 
at  last  as  clear  to  my  mind  as  the  sun  which  is  just  now 
emerging  from  the  clouds. 

"  i.  The  jury  by  which  the  parties  were  tried  was  not 
that  to  which  they  were  legally  entitled,  and  so  the 
whole  proceeding  fell  to  the  ground. 

"  2.  Some  counts  of  the  indictment  were  bad  in 
law,  but  the  Court  in  Dublin  awarded  the  punishment 
on  those,  as  well  as  the  rest,  from  the  impossibility  of 
dividing  or  apportioning  it,  or  of  discovering  how  much 
of  it  belonged  to  one  set  of  counts,  how  much  to  the 
other  ;  and  so  it  follows  that  the  whole  must  fall. 

"  Cottenham  and  Campbell  took  the  same  view.  Thus 
the  Law  Lords  were  3  to  2.  The  Lay  Lords  wished  to 
vote,  but  Lord  Wharncliffe  *  persuaded  them  to  with- 

At  the  instance  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 


1844.]     JUDGMEN  T  IN  O' CONN  ELLS  CASE.       15 1 


The 


prisoners, 


draw,    not    without    much    difficulty, 
therefore,  walk  out  of  the  penitentiary. 

"  What  will  be  the  consequence?  That  most  naturally 
to  be  expected  is  a  feeling,  for  a  time  at  least,  of  recon- 
cilement to  England.  The  Liberator  is  weakened,  I 
think,  by  losing  this  grievance.  Had  the  result  been 
different,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  weakness  of  the  legal 
arguments  would  have  convinced  nine-tenths  of  Ireland 
and  three-fourths  of  England,  that  the  judgment  was  a 
political  one  ;  and,  if  the  Lay  Lords  had  succeeded  in 
overthrowing  the  majority  of  those  called  learned,  to 
whom  all  the  judicial  business  in  the  last  resort  is  con- 
fided, surely  rebellion  would  have  blazed  out,  with  no 
bad  apology,  in  Ireland.  No  doubt,  the  Duke  sent 
Wharncliffe  to  prevent  so  great  a  scandal,  but  the  Min- 
istry had  committed  the  incredible  fault  of  circulating 
treasury  notes  to  require  the  attendance  of  their  regular 
majority,  who  were,  not  unreasonably,  unwilling  to  ab- 
stain from  voting. 

"  My  speech  has  had  great  success.  It  gave  an  unex- 
pected turn  to  the  proceeding.  Its  reasoning  was  sim- 
ple, the  matter  important,  and  connected  with  some  of 
the  most  popular  principles.  What  infinite  mischief  if 
public  opinion  had  been  all  on  one  side,  but  the  Peers 
had  decided  the  other  way  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
Chief  Justice !  " 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

DEATH   OF   MRS.   BAILLIE— SLAVE   TRADE — THE 
"  FELICIDADE  "   CASE— SUGAR  DUTIES  BILL. 

A.  D.  1845-1846.     ^ET.  66  TO  67. 

IN  the  Parliamentary  session  of  1845,  the  discussions 
on  the  subject  of  opening  letters  at  the  Post-office, 
under  warrant  from  a  Secretary  of  State,  was  re- 
newed in  the  House  of  Lords  on  May  30,  on  the  occasion 
of  Lord  Radnor's  moving  the  second  reading  of  a  bill 
which  he  had  introduced  for  limiting  and  regulating  the 
practice. 

On  this  occasion  Lord  Denman  spoke  at  some  length, 
and  with  great  force  and  eloquence,  in  favor  of  the 
second  reading.' 

He  stated  the  question  thus: 

"Their  Lordships  had  to  consider  the  grave  question 
whether  it  was  really  to  be  permitted  that  in  England 
all  letters  should  be  subjected  to  the  authority  of  the 
Ministers  of  the  Crown — whether  the  private  cor- 
respondence of  every  man  in  the  country  should  be 
placed  wholly  at  the  discretion  of  the  Secretary  of 
State. 

"  The  power,"  he  contended,  "  was  utterly  useless. 
Neither  of  the  Committees  could  state  an  instance 
in  which  it  had  ever  done  the  smallest  service  to  th-e 
State. 

"In  fact,  it  might  be  dangerous,  for  as  soon  as  the 
practice  was  known,  nothing  would  be  more  easy  than 
for  seditiously  disposed  persons  to  entrap  the  Govern- 
ment, by  false  intelligence,  carefully  and  expressly  pre- 
pared— as,  for  instance,  if  the  state  of  the  country  were 
such  that  troops  were  really  wanted,  say  in  the  north,  to 

1  His  speech  Ls  reported  in  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxx. 
pp.  1051-1065. 


1846.]         MAZZINFS    LETTERS    AGAIN.  153 

write  such  letters  as,  being  opened  at  the  Post-office, 
might  cause  the  troops  to  be  sent  away  to  the  east,  west, 
or  south. 

"  The  Committees,  no  doubt,  have  stated  that  the 
Secretaries  of  State  would  be  reluctant  to  see  the  power 
abolished ;  but  who,"  he  asks,  "  does  not  like  power, 
whether  he  expects  office,  or  is  at  present  in  office,  or 
has  once  possessed  office? 

"  This  country  ought  not  to  be  made  the  police-office 
of  any  foreign  State  whatever. 

"  Is  it  possible  to  imagine  a  more  inconvenient  situa- 
tion than  for  a  Government  to  be  told  by  some  foreign 
State :  '  You  have  a  certain  Mazzini  living  among  you. 
He  is  a  dangerous  man.  Take  care  how  you  deal  with 
him,  and  don't  fail  to  open  his  letters,  to  prevent  him 
from  carrying  on  his  revolutionary  practices.' 

"If  England  does  this  for  one  foreign  State,  she  must 
do  it  for  all ;  if  we  grant  this  favor  to  Austria,  Naples,  or 
the  Pope,  how  are  we  to  refuse  it  to  the  Emperor  of 
Russia,  in  regard,  for  instance,  to  the  numerous  Poles 
who  have  taken  refuge  in  this  country? 

"  He  could  not  agree  in  the  expression  of  regret  that 
we  had  not  an  Alien  Act.  He  thanked  God  we  had  not 
an  Alien  Act.  He  remembered  the  seige  that  had  been 
laid  to  that  iniquitous  Act  in  the  other  House  of  Parlia- 
ment. Year  after  year  had  that  siege  been  carried  on, 
and  he  did  not  believe  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  yet  for- 
gotten the  cheers  with  which  he  was  greeted  when  he 
came  forward,  in  1826,  and  declared  that  the  Alien  Act 
was  gone.  He  trusted  it  was  gone  forever;  but  this 
opening  of  letters  was  a  substitute  for  it — much  less 
effectual,  it  is  true,  but  still  more  dangerous  in  its  re- 
sults. 1844  was  the  first  year  that  we  had  seen  the  opening 
of  foreign  letters  for  the  benefit  of  foreign  States,  bond 
fide  done  for  that  purpose,  and  for  avoiding  embarrass- 
ment in  our  relations  with  those  States. 

"  The  practice  was  new,  and,  as  he  thought,  dangerous 
and  utterly  unknown  to  the  people  of  England.  They 
were  not  aware  of  its  existence  till  it  came  before  Parlia- 
ment last  year.  It  is  true  that  this  power  had  for  along 
series  of  years  been  actually  contained  in  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment :  but  to  Parliament  itself  its  existence  was  in  fact 


154  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1845— 

utterly  unknown.  It  had  its  origin  under  Cromwell 
[respecting  the  suspicious  terrors  of  whose  later  days, 
Lord  Denman  read  the  well-known  passage  from  Hume, 
and  then  continued — ] 

"  If  he  wanted  a  contrast  between  two  individuals,  he 
should  find  it  between  Oliver  Cromwell  and  that  illus- 
trious man  whose  victories  in  war  were  crowned  by  his 
influence  in  civil  affairs — whose  victories  had  all  been 
journeys  on  the  road  to  peace,  and  whose  moderation 
and  virtues  were  the  pride,  the  boast,  and  the  bulwark 
of  this  country.  He  wished  the  Noble  Duke  would  take 
that  contrast  into  his  consideration  ;  would  see  that  the 
individuals  were  not  more  contrasted  than  the  times  in 
•which  they  lived  ;  and  that  if  this  hateful  power  origin- 
ated in  the  fears  of  a  gloomy  and  hypocritical  tyrant, 
there  never  was  a  man  more  proper  or  more  suited  to 
repeal  it — to  relieve  the  Government  from  the  odium  and 
the  people  of  England  from  the  oppression  and  insult  of 
it — than  was  the  Noble  Duke  himself  in  the  times  in 
which  we  lived." 

Notwithstanding  this  appeal,  the  House  of  Lords, 
satisfied  that  for  reasons  of  State  the  power  ought  to  exist 
in  some  shape,  and  not  at  all  satisfied  that  it  could  be 
adequately  defined  and  modified  by  the  express  terms 
of  an  Act  of  Parliament,  rejected  Lord  Radnor's  bill  by 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  forty-six,  in  a  house  of 
sixty  four,  the  contents  being  only  nine,  and  the  non- 
contents  fifty-five. 

Lord  Denman  drew  up  and  entered  on  the  Journals  of 
the  House  two  protests  against  the  rejection  of  the  bill, 
one  signed  by  himself  and  Lord  Radnor,  the  other 
by  himself,  Lord  Radnor,  Lord  Campbell,  and  Lord 
Kinnaird. 

Apart  from  a  short  speech  which  he  made  on  July  3, 
on  moving  the  second  reading  of  a  bill  giving  judges  dis- 
cretionary power  to  mitigate  punishments  affixed  to 
offenses  by  statute,1  Lord  Denman  does  not  seem  to 
have  taken  any  further  active  part  in  debate  during  the 
remainder  of  the  session  of  1845. 

In  1845,  Denman  sustained  a  loss  which  he  felt  very 
deeply  in  the  death  of  his  beloved  sister  and  life-long 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxxi.  1431. 


1846.]  DEATH    OF    MRS.     BAILLIE.  155 

correspondent,  Mrs.  Baillie.  She  died  at  Hampstead.  at 
the  house  of  her  sisters-in-law,  Agnes  and  Joanna  Baillie, 
on  August  5,  of  this  year,  while  the  Chief  Justice  was 
still  detained  in  the  Oxford  Circuit. 

On  July  30,  he  had  written  to  his  wife  from  Hereford  : 

"  I  fear  the  hopes  of  recovery  at  Hampstead  are  less 
flattering.  George  [now  Mr.  Justice  Denman]  received 
an  unfavorable  report  yesterday  from  Henrietta,  and  I 
am  afraid  we  must  make  up  our  minds  to  the  worst. 
There  is  great  consolation  in  my  dear  sister's  state  of 
mind,  and  the  affectionate  care  of  her  children.  I  have 
begun  a  letter  to  her,  finding  myself  in  the  unexpected 
enjoyment  of  leisure  in  this  quiet  city,  where  there 
is  only  one  cause  for  trial.  It  is  the  last  place  on  the 
circuit  but  two,  and  there  is  no  appearance  of  much  work 
ahead  of  us." 

He  hurried  up  to  town  directly  the  circuit  was  over, 
but  arrived  too  late  to  be  present  at  his  sister's  last  mo- 
ments. Writing  to  Lady  Denman  immediately  on  his 
arrival,  on  August  7,  he  says : 

"  I  have  just  been  up  to  Hampstead,  where  I  have 
seen  the  beloved  remains,  very  little  altered,  quite  com- 
posed, and  much  resembling  my  dear  mother.  All  weie 
greatly  distressed,  but  are  now  a  little  recovering  from 
fatigue  as  well  as  extreme  sorrow,  and,  I  trust,  not 
suffering  in  health.  Among  all  the  endearing  remem- 
brances that  consoled  her  last  days,  I  have  the  happiness 
of  finding  that  your  constant  affection  and  the  attention 
of  all  our  dear  children  held  a  high  and  just  place.  The 
old  ladies  [Agnes  and  Joanna  Baillie]  bear  up  with  won- 
derful composure,  but  are  full  of  tender  feeling.  I  told 
them  to  make  this  house  [38  Portland  Place]  their  home 
whenever  it  may  suit  them  to  come  to  London,  and 
promised  that  we  would  all  exert  ourselves  to  the 
utmost  to  make  them  feel  at  home." 

Mrs.  Baillie,  who  was  in  her  seventy-fifth  year  when 
she  died,  was  a  most  excellent,  superior,  and  highly  cul- 
tivated person.  She  had  materially  assisted  in  the  de- 
velopment and  improvement  of  her  beloved  brother's 
mind  during  his  childhood,  boyhood,  and  youth  ;  and, 
from  his  Eton  school-days  to  her  death,  was,  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  his  constant  correspondent.  With 


156  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN,  [1845— 

affectionate  diligence  she  copied  out  all  his  occasional 
writings,  in  prose  and  verse,  drew  up  a  charming  sketch 
of  his  life,  down  to  his  elevation  to  the  Peerage  (often 
quoted  from  in  the  present  Memoir),  welcomed  with 
pride  and  pleasure  every  fresh  step  forward  in  his  brilliant 
and  honorable  career,  and  carefully  treasured  up  every 
public  token  of  the  esteem  and  reverence  with  which  his 
countrymen  regarded  him.1 

From  the  ordinary  struggle  of  mere  party  politics, 
Denman,  ever  since  he  became  Chief  Justice  of  England, 
had,  unlike  some  of  his  predecessors,  very  properly  ab- 
stained. On  questions,  however,  affecting  the  social 
well-being  of  the  community  and  the  general  interests 
of  humanity,  such  as  the  Reform  of  the  Law  and  the 
suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade,  he  had,  throughout, 
taken,  and  to  the  last  hour  of  his  attendance  continued 
to  take,  an  active  part  in  the  House  of  Lords.  In  the 
important  question  of  the  Bank  Act  of  1844,  and  still- 
more  in  the  Corn  Law  discussions  of  1845  and  1846, 
though  not  actively  engaging  in  debate,  he  took  a  very 
deep  interest.  On  "  Cash,  Corn,  and  Catholics,"  his 
views  had  always  been  those  of  a  steady  Liberal,  and  a 
sound  free-trader,  and  when  Sir  Robert  Peel  felt  that  he 
could  no  longer  resist  the  overwhelming  case  made  out 
by  Cobden  and  Bright  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws, 
Denman's  sympathies  were  entirely  on  the  side  of  the 
minister  who  had  the  courage  to  act  on  the  opinions 
which  he  had  been  too  slow  to  adopt,  but  which,  when 
adopted,  he  spared  no  sacrifice  to  enforce.  Denman 
disapproved  of  L.ord  John  Russell's  celebrated  letter  of 
November  22,  1845,  m  favor  of  a  total  repeal,  as  a  party 
move,  and  was  not  displeased,  when,  on  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  resignation,  his  lordship  failed  to  form  a  Cabinet. 
His  views  on  the  short  political  crisis  that  terminated, 
as  is  well  known,  before  the  close  of  the  year  1845,  m 
Sir  Robert  Peel's  resumption  of  power,  may  be  seen  by 
the  following  passages  from  two  letters  written  to  his 
son  Joseph  (then  Captain,  now  Admiral),  the  first  on 
December  13,  and  the  second  on  Christmas  Day,  1845. 
In  the  first  he  writes : 

1  The  present  representative  of  Dr.  Baillie's  family  is  his  son,  W.  H. 
Baillie,  Esq.,  of  Dunsbourne  House,  near  Cirencester. 


1846.]  THE    "  FELICIDADE."  157 

"  To-day's  Chronicle  contradicts  the  report  of  an  inter- 
view between  Lord  John  and  Sir  Robert,  and  states 
difficulty,  if  not  reluctance,  in  forming  a  new  ministry. 
It  looks  as  if  Lord  John's  shell,  which  dispersed  the 
Cabinet,  had  been  thrown  back  to  him,  and  was  still 
blazing  so  as  to  threaten  burning  of  fingers,  and  prevent  a 
new  arrangement." 

In  the  letter  of  the  25th,  written  after  Peel  had  been 
reinstated  in  power,  he  says : 

"  Recent  political  events  have  in  my  opinion,  inflicted 
a  decisive  blow  on  the  Whig  party,  perhaps  on  all  party. 
My  view  is  that  Lord  John  had  no  right  to  address  that 
letter  to  his  constituents  unless  he  was  prepared  both 
with  men  and  measures  to  enter  on  a  new  Government. 
Lord  Grey  was  the  obstacle :  he  proposed  Cobden  for 
office,  but  did  not  press  him.  In  the  last  moment  he 
objected  to  Palmerston  as  Foreign  Minister,  and  hence 
came  the  explosion.  I  can  not  help  thinking  that  Lord 
John  ought  (having  published  his  letter)  to  have  pro- 
ceeded, notwithstanding  Lord  Grey's  refusal  to  join.  I 
can  not  agree  in  any  outcry  against  Peel,  whom  I  think 
as  free  to  change  his  mind  as  Lord  John." 

Some  short  time  before  these  events  had  taken  place, 
the  Chief  Justice  had  been  a  good  deal  annoyed  by  the 
decision  of  the  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal  in  the  case  ol 
the  Felicidade. 

The  case  arose  out  of  the  trial  and  conviction,  on  a 
charge  of  murder,  before  Mr.  Baron  Platt,  at  the  Exeter 
Summer  Assizes  for  1845,  of  one  Serva,  a  Spaniard,  and 
six  other  foreigners,  under  the  following  circumstances. 

On  February  26,  1845,  the  Felicidade,  a  Brazilian 
schooner,  bound  on  a  voyage  from  the  Brazils  to  Africa, 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  back  a  cargo  of  slaves,  and 
fitted  vp  for  the  reception  of  such  cargo,  while  hovering 
about  sixteen  miles  off  the  African  coast,  and  before 
she  had  embarked  any  slaves  on  board,  was  taken  by  the 
armed  boats  of  Her  Majesty's  ship  Wasp,  the  boats  being 
under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  Stupart. 

The  Felicidade  was  then  placed  under  the  command  of 
Lieutenant  Stupart,  with  sixteen  British  seamen,  and  the 
Lieutenant  was  then  directed  to  and  did  give  c/iase  in 
the  Felicidade  to  the  Echo,  another  Brazilian  vessel. 


158  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1845— 

having  434  slaves  on  board,  and  commanded  by  the 
chief  prisoner,  Serva. 

After  this  capture,  Lieutenant  Stupart  placed  Mr. 
Palmer,  a  midshipman,  and  nine  British  seamen  on 
board  the  Felicidade,  to  which  he  also  transferred  Serva, 
the  late  master  of  the  Echo,  and  thirteen  others  of  the 
Echo's  crew. 

Lieutenant  Stupart,  with  the  other  seven  British  sea- 
men, himself  remained  on  board  the  Echo. 

Within  an  hour  after  they  had  been  thus  placed  on 
board  the  Felicidade,  Serva  and  the  rest  of  the  Echo 
crew  rose  upon  Mr.  Palmer  and  his  nine  seamen,  and, 
after  a  short  but  desperate  struggle,  succeeded  in 
slaughtering  them  all,  with  circumstances  of  atrocious 
barbarity. 

Mr.  Baron  Platt,  on  trying  the  case,  was  of  opinion, 
after  hearing  arguments  on  the  point,  that  the  Felicidade> 
at  the  time  when  Serva  and  his  crew  rose  upon  and  slew 
Mr.  Palmer  and  his  men,  was  a  British  ship,  and  that, 
therefore,  if  the  jury  should  on  the  evidence  pronounce 
the  prisoners  guilty,  their  crime  would  be  not  man- 
slaughter but  murder.  The  jury  having  on  the  evidence, 
which  was  perfectly  clear,  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty, 
the  presiding  judge,  struck  with  the  horrible  and  cold- 
blooded atrocity  of  the  crime,  sentenced  all  the  seven 
prisoners  to  death  by  hanging,  reserving,  however,  the 
legal  point  argued  before  him,  for  the  decision  of  the 
Court  of  Criminal  Appeal,  and  respiting  the  execution  of 
his  sentence  till  after  such  decision  should  have  been 
pronounced. 

The  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal  was  composed  of  thir- 
teen judges  (only  two — Cresswell  and  Coleridge — being 
absent).  They  heard  two  arguments,  one  on  November 
20,  1845,  by  Common  lawyers,  another  on  December  3, 
by  Civilians. 

On  December  11,  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
judges  present  at  the  argument — eleven  to  two — were  of 
opinion  that  the  conviction  was  wrong,  on  the  ground 
of  want  of  jurisdiction,  and  the  prisoners  were  accord- 
ingly discharged. 

The  two  dissentient  judges  were  Lord  Denman  and 
Mr.  Baron  Platt,  before  whom  the  case  was  tried. 


1846.]  THE    "  FELICIDADE."  159 

Lord  Denman's  opinion  was  expressed  in  the  follow- 
ing terms: 

"  I  thought  the  conviction  right.  It  appeared  to  me 
that  the  possession  of  the  Brazilian  vessel  by  the  British 
officers  was  a  lawful  possession,  under  a  seizure  by  them 
of  the  said  ship  while  employed  by  Brazilian  subjects  in 
the  Slave  Trade,  and  I  thought  that  the  vessel  so  in 
possession  of  British  officers,  under  a  general  authority 
from  the  Crown,  was  a  British  vessel  for  the  purpose  of 
founding  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Admiralty,  and, 
of  course,  since  the  late  Act,  of  the  Court  of  Oyer  and 
Terminer  sitting  at  Exeter  to  try  crimes  committed  on 
board  such  vessel.1 

It  is  not  easy  to  discover  the  precise  grounds  on  which 
the  majority  of  the  Court  thought  that  jurisdiction  did 
not  exist  or  was  not  shown  to  exist,  for,  according  to  the 
bad  custom  of  the  Criminal  Court  of  Appeal,  their  judg- 
ment was  pronounced  without  a  statement  of  the  reasons 
on  which  it  proceeded.  From  considering,  however,  the 
course  of  the  argument  as  reported,  and  the  occasional 
remarks  let  fall  by  the  Judge,  it  would  seem  that  a  cir- 
cumstance which  had  great  weight  with  them  was  this  : 
the  Felicidade,  when  taken,  though  equipped  and  fitted 
out  for  slave-trading,  had  no  slaves  on  board,  nor  was  it 
shown  that  she  had  had  any  on  board  in  the  course  of 
the  voyage.  Now,  though  the  instructions  on  board  the 
Wasp  were,  "  that  vessels  are  to  be  detained  if  there  be 
reasonable  ground  for  suspecting  that  they  are  engaged 
in  the  Slave  Trade,"  yet,  by  a  former  Treaty  between 
England  and  Portugal,  incorporated  into  the  Treaty  then 
in  force  between  England  and  Brazil,  it  was  dis- 
tinctly stipulated  that  "  no  British  cruisers  shall  detain 
any  slave-ship,  not  having  slaves  actually  on  board''  As 
this  was  precisely  the  case  of  the  Felicidade  when  taken, 
the  Court  probably  proceeded  on  the  ground  that  her 
capture  and  detention  was  illegal,  that  she  therefore 
never  became  a  British  ship,  and  consequently  the 
offense  was  one  which  a  British  Court  had  no  jurisdiction 
to  try. 

Denman   went   on   the   broader   ground    that    these 

1  The  case  is  reported  in  Denison's  "  Crown  Cases  reserved,"  vol.  i.  pp. 
104-156. 


160  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN         [1845— 

prisoners,  being  Brazilian  subjects,  caught  in  carrying  on 
the  Slave  Trade,  by  British  officers  intrusted  with  the 
suppression  of  that  trade,  were  pirates  by  the  Treaty  be- 
tween England  and  Brazil,  in  1826,  and  the/  and  8  Geo. 
IV.  c.  74,  and,  consequently,  that  their  slave  ship,  the 
Felicidade,  was  lawfully  detained  and  captured,  and  so 
became  a  British  ship  for  the  purpose  of  founding  crim- 
inal jurisdiction. 

The  decision  of  the  majority  of  the  Court  on  the  Felic- 
idade case  was  very  grievous  to  Denman.  In  a  paper 
which  he  shortly  after  drew  up  and  submitted  to  the 
Home  Secretary,  upon  the  origin,  constitution,  and  pro- 
cedure of  the  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal,  with  a  view  to 
the  much-needed  reform  of  that  tribunal,1  he  thus 
alludes  to  the  probable  consequences  of  that  decision, 
and  to  the  unsatisfactory  mode  in  which  it  was  arrived 
at: 

"  The  result  appears  to  destroy  all  reasonable  hope  of 
suppressing  the  Slave  Trade,  and  to  hold  out  to  it  the 
promise  of  entire  indemnity;  to  place  the  lives  of 
British  officers  engaged  in  that  service,  at  the  mercy  of 
the  slave  trader;  to  turn  the  pirate  into  an  injured  man, 
and  expose  the  officer  of  justice  to  the  penalties  and 
dangers  of  piracy.  And  all  this  is  effected  through  the 
medium  of  an  opinion  formed  under  the  circumstances 
which  I  have  described,  without  any  statement  of  the 
reasons  on  which  it  proceeded,  and  without  the  ex- 
pectation of  having  to  assign  those  reasons  in  the  face 
of  the  profession  and  the  public." 

Writing  to  his  son,  Captain  Denman,  on  December 
12,  1845,  the  day  after  the  judgment,  he  says: 

"The  case  was,  in  fact,  decided  on  the  ground  of 
jurisdiction,  the  Felicidade  being  holden  not  a  king's 
ship,  so  as  to  form  a  part  of  the  British  territory.  I 
thought  her  in  the  lawful  custody  of  one  of  H.  M.'s 
officers,  and  therefore  a  British  ship.  It  seems  to  me 
the  poorest  of  quibbles,  and  the  most  mischievous  of 
doctrines  to  deny  this.  But  it  is  wonderful  and  dis- 
heartening to  observe  the  reluctance  to  recede  from  the 
old  iniquity." 

1  This  valuable  paper,  which  will  be  found  very  interesting  by  Law  Re- 
formers, is  printed  in  extenso  in  the  Appendix,  as  Appendix  Vi. 


1846.]  THE    "FELICIDADE."  i6r 

In  the  letter  already  cited,  of  December  25,  he  says, 
in  further  reference  to  the  same  subject : 

"  When  the  Government  was  supposed  to  be  going 
out,  Sir  James  Graham  sent  to  the  Chancellor  [Lynd- 
hurst]  various  suggestions  for  the  improvement  of  the 
law.  One  respected  the  tribunal  of  the  fifteen  judges, 
the  unsatisfactory  character  of  which  he  illustrated  by 
the  late  pirate's  \_Felicidade]  case.  At  the  same  time, 
frightened,  like  Aberdeen,  at  the  probable  result  of  that 
decision,  he  sent  Lushington  to  Parke's  house,  to  con- 
sider how  the  matter  should  be  put  so  as  to  do  the  least 
possible  mischief.  They  brought  me  a  letter  written  to 
Sir  James  Graham  by  Alderson,  reporting,  not  very  ac- 
curately, what  passed  among  the  Judges.  This  move- 
ment authorized  and  required  me  to  write  fully  to  Sir 
James  Graham,  my  reasons  for  dissenting  from  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal ;  and  he,  the 
next  day  [December  23],  the  very  day  of  his  returning 
to  be  reinstated  in  office  at  Windsor,  sent  me  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  entire  satisfaction  and  great  joy, 
hoping  that  the  mischief  may  be  corrected.  I  requested 
him  to  show  what  I  had  written  to  Lord  Aberdeen,  and 
have  myself  sent  a  copy  to  the  Chancellor.  They  will, 
of  course,  be  cautious  in  condemning  what  has  been  done 
by  a  large  judicial  majority,  but  in  the  Lords  I  doubt 
not  that  Brougham  will  agree  with  me,  and  most  proba- 
bly Campbell,  and  even  the  Chancellor  to  a  certain 
extent,  adopting  Lord  Stowell's  prudence,  but  greatly 
qualifying  his  general  legal  doctrine  of  piracy.  On  the 
whole  I  have  great  hope  that  the  rash  and  ill-considered 
decision  will  be  stript  of  all  authority,  and  that  my  prin- 
cipal proposition  will  take  its  place  among  the  undenia- 
ble and  elementary  truths  of  the  law." 

The  case,  however,  was  never  brought  before  the 
Lords,  and  so  the  hopes  above  expressed  by  Denman  as 
to  its  being  stript  of  all  authority  there,  were  not  in  that 
respect  fulfilled. 

The  paper  to  which,  in  the  letter  just  cited,  the  Chief 
Justice  refers  as  having  been  sent  to  Sir  James  Graham, 
and  as  containing  his  reasons  for  dissenting  from  the 
judgment  of  the  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal,  is,  as  Sir 
James  styles  it  in  his  letter  of  acknowledgement,  dated 
ii. — it 


162  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAX.  [1845— 

December  23,  1845,  "a  very  masterly  exposition  of 
opinion."  It  mainly  proceeds  on  the  principle — a  prin- 
ciple frequently,  as  has  been  seen,  enounced  by  Denman  in 
his  speeches  and  his  writings — viz.  that  the  duty  imposed 
on  all  civilized  communities  by  the  law  of  nature  and  of 
nations  of  dealing  with  the  Slave  Trade  as  a  crime,  and 
with  slave-traders  as  pirates,  is  paramount  to  the  special 
clauses  of  treaties  introduced  in  derogation  of  it,  even 
supposing  that  in  the  case  under  consideration — a 
supposition  which  he  doubts — the  clause  in  the  old 
treaty  with  Portugal,  incorporated  into  that  with  Brazil, 
limiting  the  right  of  capture  to  slave  ships  having 
actually  slaves  on  board  at  the  time,  had  not  expired 
before  the  seizure  and  detention  of  the  Felicidade  took 
place.  Whether  this  principle  would  ever  have  been 
asserted  by  the  Law  Lords  in  the  Upper  House  had  the 
case  of  the  Felicidade  been  carried  there,  is  a  point 
which  must  be  regarded  as  at  least  doubtful.  By  the 
judges  of  the  superior  Courts  of  Westminster  Hall,  who 
followed  in  this  respect  the  lead  of  Lord  Stowell,. 
the  principle  had  been  always  steadily  and  uniformly 
rejected. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  the  session  of  1846,  Denman 
does  not  appear  to  have  taken  part  in  any  questions  of 
general  public  importance  as  a  speaker  in  the  House  of 
Lords. 

In  the  interval  between  the  sittings  after  Easter  and  the 
commencement  of  Trinity  Term,  1846,  he  had  stolen 
down  for  a  brief  holiday  at  Stony  Middleton,  whence  he 
writes  as  follows  to  Coleridge,  who  had  been  suffering  in 
health,  and  throwing  out,  it  appears,  some  hints  as  to 
retirement : 

"  May  21,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — Your  letter  scarcely  precedes 
the  conclusion  of  my  short  and  happy  retirement  here, 
which  has  effected  not  only  great  reforms  in  the  grounds, 
but  also  a  good  deal  of  judicial  work,  quietly  got 
through,  and  rather  as  a  resource  from  idleness  than  as 
an  exertion.  No  week  of  my  life  has  ever  been  better 
employed. 

"  Patteson  wrote  to  me  respecting  your  health,  which 
has  been  suffering,  it  seems,  from  temporary  causes. 


iS45.]  PEEL'S    RESIGNATION.  163 

The  worst  of  that  detestable  influenza  is  the  long  depres- 
sion it  produces.  I  am  glad  you  are  sensible  of  the 
necessity  of  lying  up  for  a  time,  and  I  should  strongly 
recommend  you  to  forego  all  thought  of  coming  into 
active  work  before  the  Long  Vacation.  We  are  all, 
thank  God,  able  and  willing,  and  we  may  very  probably 
send  you  some  of  our  essays  [written  judgments]  for  cor- 
rection at  leisure.  I  am  not  sure  that  an  opinion  so 
obtained,  without  any  of  the  fever  of  Court,  may  not 
often  be  more  valuable.  You  use  some  expressions  of  a 
very  ominous  and  painful  character,  but  your  spirits  had 
recovered  before  you  wrote.  In  case  of  a  similar  feeling 
again  taking  possession  of  you,  and  prompting  you 
suddenly  to  do  what  all  mankind  and  yourself  would 
afterwards  lament,  I  should  like  to  exact  a  promise 
(indeed,  I  shall  consider  this  suggestion,  unanswered,  as 
an  engagement  on  your  part)  not  to  take  any  such  step 
without  a  previous  communication  with  each  of  your 
brethren  of  the  Queen's  Bench,  or  without  a  certain 
time  (say  one  month,  in  time  of  work,  and  three  in 
time  of  vacation)  taken  to  deliberate.  The  want 
of  wealth  is  no  object  of  regret  if  we  place  our  families 
well  in  the  world,  and  by  prudent  and  liberal  outlay  put 
our  sons  in  a  condition  to  help  themselves  and  others." 

Denman  watched,  with  keen  interest,  through  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1846,  the  great  struggle  of  Corn 
Law  abolition,  a  struggle  which,  as  is  well  known,  led  to 
the  triumph  of  the  ministerial  measure,  soon  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  resignation  (on  June  29,  1846)  of  the  min- 
ister himself.  Writing  to  his  son  Joseph,  on  other  mat- 
ters, on  June  23,  he  says,  "  Peel  weathers  the  storm,  I 
think,  in  the  Commons  and  in  the  country,  but  the 
aspect  of  the  Lords  last  night  was  threatening.  We 
[the  Whig  party]  cut  a  fine  figure." 

Writing  again  on  June  30,  the  day  after  Peel's  resigna- 
tion, he  says: 

"  The  Whig  dynasty  will,  I  presume,  be  now  restored, 
and  the  old  government  machine  be  reconstructed  on 
the  ruin  and  disgrace  of  the  minister  who  has  passed 
both  of  their  measures — Corn  and  Coercion.  It  does 
seem  to  me  the  most  shocking  departure  from  honor 
and  justice  that  politics  have  ever  witnessed:" 


1 64  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1845— 

It  was  about  the  same  time  that  his  third  daughter, 
Frances,  the  "  dearest  Fanny  "  and  "  dear  little  Queen  " 
of  his  earlier  correspondence,  became,  greatly  to  his  sat- 
isfaction, the  wife  of  a  gallant  brother  officer  of  Captain 
Denman's — Captain  (afterwards  Admiral  Sir  Robert 
Lambert)  Baynes.  K.C.B.1  The  bride  and  bridegroom 
went  to  spend  their  honeymoon  at  Stony  Middleton,  of 
whose  improvement  the  former  had  long  been  the  most 
active  superintendent. 

In  the  Summer  Assizes  of  this  year,  Denman  again 
went  the  North  Wales  Circuit,  whence,  from  under  the 
shadow  of  Cader  Idris,  he  writes  to  Lady  Denman  : 

"Dolgelly:  July  18,  1846. 

"  My  dearest  Love, — We  go  on  in  the  same  quiet, 
comfortable  manner.  Sir  Robert  Vaughan  (the  Sheriff) 
and  his  lady  have  been  all  kindness.  We  dined  there  on 
Thursday,  and  Georgiana,3  passed  all  yesterday  with 
Lady  Vaughan,  at  their  charming  place  among  the 
mountains,  two  miles  off;  and  last  evening  we  drank 
tea  there,  after  completing  the  whole  work  of  the  As- 
sizes. We  go  to  Carnarvon  this  afternoon,  taking  as 
many  beautiful  objects  as  possible  on  our  way.  Tell 
Joe  [Captain  Denman]  I  have  been  reading  in  the 
'  Quarterly'  and  '  Edinburgh'  the  interesting  account  of 
Mr.  Brooke's 3  proceedings  in  Borneo,  and  have  men- 
tioned them  to  Brougham,  to  be  contrasted  with  those 
doings  in  Africa,  which  some  persons  wish  us  to  en- 
courage for  the  sake  of  a  halfpenny  a  pound  in  the  price 
of  sugar. 

"  I  have  not  desired  him  (Brougham)  to  bring  up  the 
subject  of  my  salary,  but  have  only  written  to  tell  him 
that  his  memory  is  quite  incorrect — in  truth,  if  fault 
there  be,  he  is  the  sole  offender.  I  don't  think  anything 
will  come  of  this  stir.  Lady  Vaughan's  mother  played 
Welsh  airs  so  well  that  we  were  reminded  of  you,  but 
the  music  was  not  necessary  as  a  reminder  for  your  ever 
faithful  and  affectionate  husband." 

The  reference  in  the  last   sentence   but    one  of  the 

1  He  died,  1869. 

8  First  wife  of  the  present  Lord  Denman,  who,  as  Marshal  and  Associate, 
officially  accompanied  the  Chief  Justice  on  circuit,  and  on  this,  as  on  some 
Other  occasions,  took  his  wife  round  with  him. 

'Afterwards  Sir  James  Brooke,  Rajah  of  Sarawak. 


1846.]  DEN  MAN'S    SALARY.  165 

above  letter,  as  to  salary,  relates  to  the  debate  which 
took  place  in  the  House  of  Lords,  on  June  14,  1846,  on 
the  subject  of  the  salaries  of  the  Chief  Justices,  and  the 
result  of  which  has  been  shortly  given  in  a  former  chap- 
ter, when  stating  the  acceptance,  by  Lord  Denman,  of  a 
reduced  salary,  at  the  time  of  his  elevation  to  the  Chief 
Justiceship  of  the  King's  Bench. 

He  refers  to  the  same  subject  in  a  letter  written  a  few 
days  later,  to  Coleridge  (on  July  25,  from  Holyhead), 
the  substance  of  which,  as  far  as  regards  this  matter,  has 
been  given  in  the  chapter  just  mentioned,  but  other 
parts  of  which  are  of  sufficient  interest  to  justify  a  more 
extended  citation  here.  After  setting  forth,  in  the 
terms  elsewhere  stated,  the  exact  circumstances  regard- 
ing his  acceptance  of  the  lower  salary,  he  adds  : 

"This  is  all  that  passed;  no  haggling  or  bargaining, 
but  merely. a  suggestion  of  my  own,  accepted  by  the 
Government,  and  acted  on  first  by  myself,  and  then  by 
them.  Brougham  says  my  executors  will  have  a  claim 
to  the  whole  amount  for  the  last  six  years  of  my  life  at 
least ; '  and  if  it  is  determined  to  give  ;£io,OOO  after  my 
time,  I  certainly  should  think  myself  hardly  used  if  the 
same  amount  were  not  secured  to  me  for  the  remainder 
of  my  term.3  Pray  tell  me  your  opinion  and  Patte- 
son's,  to  be  considered  if  the  occasion  should  arise,  which 
I  do  not  much  think  it  will,  for  other  waves  come  rush- 
ing in  and  sweep  this  subject  out  of  every  mind. 
Brougham,  beginning  his  communication  with  my  salary, 
carries  it  on  solely  on  the  great  question  on  which  a 
Liberal  Government  seek  the  support  of  popular 
opinion — the  right  to  become  an  accomplice  in  that  con- 
geries of  crimes — miscalled  the  Slave  Trade — the  right  to 
encourage  and  extend,  without  limit,  the  kidnapping  of 
free  Africans  in  their  own  country,  to  be  consigned,  in 
torture,  to  slavery  in  a  foreign  land — a  free  trade  in  rob- 
bery and  murder — a  deliberate  teaching  all  men  to  do 
what  they  would  not  have  others  do  to  them — the 

1  Meaning  that  for  the  period  beyond  six  years  preceding  his  death  the 
Statute  of  Limitations  would  be  a  bar. 

•  No  legislative  action  was  taken  in  the  matter  till  1851.  when,  as  stated 
elsewhere,  the  salaries  of  the  Chief  Justices  were  fixed  at  ^8,000  for  the 
Queen's  Bench,  and  ,£7,000  for  the  Common  Pleas  and  Exchequer,  at  which 
they  still  remain. 


1 66  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1845— 

largest  accumulation  of  monstrous  evil  for  the  sake  of 
some  sordid  and  doubtful  good — the  permanent  subjec- 
tion of  a  whole  continent  to  incurable  barbarism,  that 
we  may  have  sugar  a  halfpenny  a  pound  cheaper.  I 
have  "never  met  with  any  man  who  appears  to  me  to  see 
this  question  in  its  true  light ;  but,  in  answer  to 
Brougham's  call,  I  have  sent  him  a  final  expression  of 
my  sentiments,  to  be  used  at  his  discretion  in  the  Lords 
this  evening.  I  do  hope  the  Ministry  will  fail  and  fall: 
mischievous  as  these  changes  are,  they  are  nothing  in 
comparison  to  the  avowal  of  a  deliberate  intention  to 
encourage  the  Slave  Trade  of  England.  If  the  whole 
administration  were  pounced  upon  at  a  whitebait  dinner 
at  Greenwich,  and  carried  off,  by  a  just  retaliation,  to 
work  in  African  mines,  by  the  pirates  of  Algiers  or  Bar- 
bary,  what  would  be  their  sufferings  compared  to  those 
of  one  cargo  of  human  beings  closed  packed  on  the  Mid- 
dle Passage?  But  these  cargoes  are  counted  by  tens  of 
thousands. 

"As  soon  as  I  get  home  my  last  daughter1  leaves  the 
paternal  roof — an  awful  sacrifice,  but  a  subject,  on  the 
whole,  of  rejoicing.  All  our  previous  experiments  have 
been  successful  as  to  the  great  essentials  of  happiness. 
I  am  very  glad  that  your  son's  marriage  is  near  at  hand.9 
Your  ideas  about  grandchildren  are  quite  correct 
— they  are  the  only  faultless  portion  of  the  human 
race." 

His  strong  feelings  on  the  ministerial  Sugar  Duties' 
Bill,  as  involving  an  encouragement  to  the  Slave  Trade, 
appear  still  more  clearly  in  the  following  letter,  written 
on  August  2,  from  Chester  (the  last  place  on  this  circuit) 
to  his  son,  Captain  Denman — a  letter  which  also  deserves 
notice  for  the  generous  appreciation  it  contains  of  the 
high  services  to  the  Slave  Trade  question  of  Lord 
Brougham,  on  whose  political  conduct  the  Captain 

1  Not  last  in  birth,  but  last  married  ;  Anne,  Lord  Denman's  fifth  daughter, 
married,  on  August  28  1846,  Captain  Holland,  R.  N.;  his  sixth  and  young- 
est, Caroline  Amelia,  had  earlier  in  the  same  year  married  the  Rev.  John 
George  Beresford,  so  that,  including  Lady  Baynes,  three  of  Denman's 
daughters  were  married  in  1846. 

5  Sir  John  Duke  Coleridge  (now  Attorney-General),  married  in  1846 
to  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  G.  T.  Seymour,  of  Faringford  Hall,  Isle  of 
\Yight. 


1846.]  LORD    BROUGHAM.  167 

had,  it  would  appear,  been  making  some  unfavorable 
strictures: 

"  What  you  say  about  Brougham  is  in  great  part  just, 
and  I  lament  it.  But  on 'this  subject  [Slave  Trade]  no 
doubt  can  be  entertained  as  to  his  perfect  sincerity,  any 
more  than  on  his  peculiar  power  to  do  justice  to  the 
cause,  having  commenced  his  career  by  a  very  able  work 
on  the  colonies,  written  at  the  age  of  two  or  three-and- 
twenty,  and  having  uniformly  supported  the  great 
principles  of  justice  and  humanity  under  all  circumstances 
with  unrivaled  vigor  and  ability.  We  must  take  men 
as  we  find  them.  He  has  damaged  himself  by  indulging 
personal  feelings,  and  for  that  reason  I  am  glad  he  has 
had  the  opportunity  of  citing  me,  to  whom  none  such 
can  be  imputed,  in  support  of  his  just  views.  For  my 
own  share,  I  can  not  allow  any  consideration  to  interfere 
with  my  sense  of  the  duty  of  standing  up  for  the  endan- 
gered principle — the  very  first  principle  on  which  society 
is  founded,  and  which  we  can  not  abandon  without  ex- 
posing ourselves,  and  justly,  to  the  endurance  of  any 
amount  of  oppression.  I  must  seriously  lament  that 
my  friends  have  made  this  [sugar  duties]  a  party  ques- 
tion, and  given  Peel  an  occasion  of  making  a  speech 
which  so  effectually  condemns  them.  But  when  the 
Whigs  rely  on  such  an  issue,  it  is  impossible  to  shrink 
from  some  examination  of  their  merits  as  a  ministry  and 
their  conduct  as  a  party.  I  unhappily  think  it  unex- 
ampled for  meanness,  as  well  as  highly  unconstitutional ; 
and  their  obtaining  quiet  possession  of  power  by  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Africans  is  one  argument  more  with  me 
against  their  measures.  I  have  carefully  read  every  word 
of  the  debates,  and  every  newspaper  that  has  fallen  in 
my  way,  with  all  my  original  impressions  materially 
strengthened." 

From  Chester,  the  next  day  (August  3),  he  writes  to 
Lady  Denman,  while  in  Court: 

"About  ten  this  morning  I  was  actually  in  hopes  of 
leaving  Chester  to-day  and  reaching  home  to-night,  for 
the  entry  consisted  of  three  light  causes  only;  but  since 
that  time  they  have  entered  eleven  more,  and  though 
six  of  them  are  already  disposed  of,  the  rest  will  detain 
me  the  whole  of  to-morrow.  Since  I  have  been  sitting 


168  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1845— 

in  Court  I  have  been  cheered  by  a  visit  here  from 
Richard  and  Emma  [his  third  son  and  his  wife],  making 
their  short  trip  over  (not  more  than  an  hour)  from  Liver- 
pool, and  making  me  very  happy  by  good  reports  of 
their  children.  The  thunderstorm  seems  at  length  to 
have  produced  a  small  impression  on  the  extreme 
sultriness,  which  last  night  exceeded  all  I  remember. 
Both  courts  are  very  hot.  Chester  is  a  crowded  and 
dirty  city,  a  great  contrast  to  the  simplicity  and  charm- 
ing scenery  of  Wales  which  we  have  just  left,  still  more 
so  to  the  happy  home  I  am  approaching.  So  Annie  has 
fixed  to-morrow  fortnight  [August  28 — for  her  marriage], 
by  which  day  I  hope  to  have  returned  from  voting 
against  the  iniquitous  bill  [Sugar  Duties'  Bill]  brought 
in  by  ministers. 

"  If  learned  counsel  will  make  such  long,  stupid 
speeches,  learned  judges'  wives  must  expect  to  receive 
long,  stupid  letters;  but  there  is  a  time  for  all  things." 

Den  man,  animated  by  the  generous  sentiments  of  in- 
dignation, so  strongly  expressed  in  several  of  the  fore- 
going letters,  contrived  to  reach  London  from  circuit  in 
time  to  oppose,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the  Government 
Bill  for  equalizing  the  duties  on  British  colonial  and 
slave-produced  sugar — a  measure  which,  in  his  opinion, 
and  that  of  all  the  sincere  opponents  of  the  Slave  Trade, 
would  have  a  direct  tendency  alarmingly  to  increase  the 
accursed  traffic. 

Lord  Clarendon,  in  introducing  the  Bill  to  the  House, 
gave  expression  to  many  opinions  in  the  highest  degree 
distasteful  and  distressing  to  Lord  Denman.  He  de- 
clared, that  after  struggling  for  thirty  years  with  un- 
abated courage  and  energy  for  the  abolition  of  the  Slave 
Trade,  we  had  succeeded  in  nothing  but  making  it  a 
smuggling  trade ;  that  we  had  not  only  not  checked, 
but  greatly  increased  the  numbers  of  slaves  torn  from 
their  families  and  country;  that  we  had  added  infinitely 
to  the  horrors  of  the  Middle  Passage  ;  that,  in  order  to- 
supply  the  place  of  negroes  captured  by  the  cruisers,  or 
thrown  overboard  to  avoid  them,  double  the  number  of 
slaves  were  kidnapped  in  Africa  than  there  had  been 
when  the  trade  was  perfectly  free.1 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxxviii.  pp.  467-487. 


1846.]  SUGAR  DUTIES  BILL  OF  1846.  169 

Lord  Denman  said : 

"  He  felt  it  an  imperative  duty  to  himself,  to  all  with 
whom  he  had  been  connected  in  political  life,  and  to  the 
people  of  England,  to  declare  his  distinct  and  irrecon- 
cilable hostility  to  the  principles  on  which  this  Bill  was 
founded. 

"  He  urged  that  it  must  necessarily  stimulate  and  en- 
courage the  Slave  Trade. 

"  He  thought  it  utterly  impossible  to  talk  of  slavery 
and  the  Slave  Trade  with  any  degree  of  moderation,  or, 
indeed,  with  any  other  feeling  than  that  of  the  most  per- 
fect abhorrence.  The  noble  lord  who  commenced  the 
discussion,  has  expressed,  in  strong  terms,  his  abhor- 
rence of  that  system  ;  but,  it  was  difficult  to  suppose 
that  that  system  could  really  be  regarded  with  any  great 
abhorrence  or  disgust  by  those  who  proposed  a  measure 
directly  calculated  to  aggravate  the  evil. 

"  As  to  the  failure  of  the  measures  adopted  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  Slave  Trade,  it  was  admitted  that  last 
year  no  less  than  seventy-five  slave  ships  were  captured 
by  British  cruisers.  It  was  admitted  that  both  in  Cuba 
and  Brazil  many  persons  were  desirous  of  getting  rid  of 
their  slaves,  and  were  less  anxious  to  protract  the  system 
of  slavery,  because  their  trade  was  rendered  dangerous 
by  the  watchfulness  of  the  British  cruisers. 

"Yet,  the  Government  had  hardly  been  placed  in 
their  seats,  when,  in  July  or  August,  they  asked  Parlia- 
ment, suddenly,  to  legislate  on  this  subject,  calling  upon 
it,  hastily,  to  make  an  inroad  upon  a  mighty  scheme  for 
the  abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade,  and  for  rescuing  the 
human  race  from  a  curse  and  stigma  under  which  they 
had  long  labored,  and  which  fostered  and  maintained  a 
body  of  men  in  the  practice  of  piracy  of  the  worst  kind. 

"  It  had  been  said  that  Free  Trade  would  and  must 
prevail,  that  there  was  no  means  of  stopping  or  checking 
it  in  any  direction  in  which  it  should  tend. 

"  That  seemed  to  him  a  very  alarming  doctrine,  and 
he  wished  the  Government  would  state  how  they  would 
apply  such  a' principle  to  the  encouragement  of  blood- 
shed,  murder,  and  rapine. 

"  If  free  trade  was  this  irresistible  power  which  it  \va> 
in  vain  to  contend  against,  and  to  which  we  must  all 


170  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [l845— 

submit,  he  wanted  to  know  why  that  answer  should  not 
be  given  to  any  of  our  own  subjects  who  were  as  disposed 
to  purchase  slaves  as  the  Government  was  to  purchase 
the  article  produced  by  slave  labor. 

"  If  free  trade  were  to  be  made  the  plea  for  encourag- 
ing crime,  bloodshed,  and  all  the  horrors  that  took  place 
on  the  coast  of  Africa,  he  did  not  see  why  the  traffic  in 
slaves  should  not  be  directly  sanctioned  and  owned.1 

Denman's  exertions  were  utterly  in  vain  ;  "  the  half- 
penny a  pound  less  for  sugar"  was  too  strong  for  him  ; 
free  trade  in  slaves  was  beginning  to  be  a  cant  phrase  of 
the  day  ;  and  the  Government  measure,  which  had  been 
introduced  into  Parliament  with  great  precipitation  late 
in  the  session,  was  hurried  through  both  Houses  by  sheer 
force  of  voting,  and  received  the  Royal  Assent  before 
the  adjournment. 

Retiring  to  the  peaceful  shades  of  "woody"  Middle- 
ton,  after  the  turmoil  and  vexation  of  this  unsuccessful 
conflict,  he  writes  thence  as  follows,  on  September  17, 
to  his  daughter,  Lady  Baynes  : 

"  I  doubt  whether  I  have  once  written  to  you  in  your 
wedded  state,  so  it  is  fortunate  that  a  letter  falls  to  be 
answered  on  your  birthday — a  dear  and  happy  day  to 
your  parents,  and,  I  am  assured,  to  your  husband  and  all 
your  newly-acquired  relations.  We  are  all  well  here, 
and  a  merry  party,  with  the  five  delightful  grandchil- 
dren, though  our  gaiety  has  been  sadly  clouded  by  the 
loss  of  so  old  and  familiar  a  friend  as  Williams.2  All  are 
shocked,  but  to  me  his  loss  is  from  various  reasons  par- 
ticularly severe,  and  that  occupation  which  is  often  the 
best  recourse  against  grief,  will  long  renew  and  embitter 
mine.  But  life  is  a  mingled  yarn,  and  the  practical  les- 
son is  a  cheerful  one — to  take  care  of  ourselves  and  all  who 
are  dear  to  us,  and  make  one  another  as  happy  as  we  can 
while  life  endures.  That  you  and  Lambert  [Captain 
Baynes]  may  enjoy  this  satisfaction  through  a  long  course 
of  happy  years  is  my  wish  and  prayer.  Your  mother  is  just 
come  in  to  add  her  congratulations  and  blessings  to  mine." 

1  Denman's  speech  is  reported,  but  evidently  very  imperfectly,  in  Hansard, 
Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  Ixxxviii.  pp.  510-514. 

8  Sir  John  Williams  died  suddenly,  on  September  14,  1846,  at  his  seat, 
Livermore  Park,  near  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his  age. 


1846.]  SIX     WILLIAM    ERLE.  171 

The  death  of  Mr.  Justice  Williams,  adverted  to  in  the 
above  letter,  was  naturally  much  felt  by  Denman.  Ever 
since  the  Queen's  trial  in  1820,  they  had  been  intimate; 
had  fought  together  from  1823  to  1826  in  the  House  of 
Commons  against  old  Eldon  and  Chancery  abuses  ;  and 
had  sat  together  as  Judges  in  the  Court  of  Queen's 
Bench  for  between  twelve  and  thirteen  years. 

Mr.  Justice  Williams  was  succeeded  in  the  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench  by  that  admirable  Judge,  Sir  William 
Erie,  who,  in  November,  1844,  had  been  appointed  a 
Judge  of  the  Common  Pleas,  of  which  Court,  after  a 
service  of  nearly  thirteen  years  in  the  Queen's  Bench, 
he  afterwards  became  Chief  Justice,  retiring  in  1866, 
after  a  most  distinguished  judicial  career  of  twenty- 
two  years'  duration.  By  the  unanimous  suffrage  of  the 
whole  legal  profession  a  better  judge  than  Sir  William 
Erie  never  sat  on  the  Bench — combining  in  the  highest 
degree  learning,  diligence,  patience,  and  courtesy.  He 
sat  more  than  three  years  (from  November  1846  to  March 
1850)  in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  while  it  was  pre- 
sided over  by  Lord  Denman,  who  had  the  most  thorough 
appreciation  of  his  valuable  qualities,  and  an  affectionate 
esteem  for  his  high  and  lovable  character.1 

It  was  during  his  vacation  weeks  at  Stony  Middleton, 
in  the  autumn  of  1846,  that  Denman,  indignant  at  the 
tone  taken  by  the  Press,  in  regard  to  the  Government 
Sugar  Bill,  the  Slave  Trade,  and  the  Squadron,  wrote 
the  verses  which  he  published  anonymously  in  the  next 
year,  under  the  title  of  "The  Slave  Trade  and  the 
Press."  Facit  indignatio  -versus  is  a  saying  often  verified 
by  fact,  but  the  inspiration  of  wrath  is  not  generally  a 
wise  one.  Denman's  stanzas  on  this  occasion,  some  of 
which  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix,*  hardly  seem  to 
atone  by  the  felicity  of  their  execution  for  the  impru- 
dence of  their  publication.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  present 
writer's  opinion — the  reader,  if  he  likes  to  refer  to  the 
Appendix,  can  judge  for  himself. 

1  Sir  William  Erie,  born  1793  ;  educated  at  Winchester  and  Oxford  ;  D 
C.  L.,  1818  ;  called  to  Bar,  1819  ;  King's  Counsel,  1834  ;  Judge  of  Common 
Pleas,  November,  1844:  Queen's  Bench,  1846:  Chief  Judge  of  Common 
Pleas,  1859:  resigned,  November,  i£6G. 

8  Appendix  II 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

MONTEM    SUPPRESSED — ABOLITION   OF   TRANS- 
PORTATION. 

A.  D.  1847.    JET.  68. 

IN  the  spring  of  the  year  1847,  Lord  Denman  presided 
on  the  Home  Circuit,  whence  he  wrote,  from  Hert- 
ford, the  first  assize  town  on  that  circuit,  the  follow- 
ing letter  to  his  friend  and  son-in-law,  the  Provost  of 
Eton,  on  the  suppression  of  the  too-long  tolerated  satur- 
nalia of  Montem,   a  measure  which  the  Provost  (some- 
what against  the  feeling  of  the  Court,  and  of  some  old 

o  o  * 

Eton    celebrities)   was  then    actively   engaged   in   pro- 
moting: 

"County  Hall,  Hertford:  March  4,  1847. 

"  My  dear  Hodgson, — I  don't  exactly  understand  your 
position.  Has  the  Provost  the  sole  authority  ?  Has  it 
been  exercised  in  union  with  the  Fellows,  and  with  their 
approbation?  I  know  the  headmaster  concurred,  but 
was  that  only  by  way  of  advice,  or  as  exercising  some 
power?  Again,  what  is  the  Queen's  position?  Has  she 
power  to  allow  or  disallow  what  the  college  authority 
has  done,  and  has  Her  Majesty  added  her  sanction  to 
their  act,  or  is  it  only  that  she  makes  the  holiday  by  at- 
tending at  Salt  Hill  ?  In  the  former  case,  I  would  ad- 
vise a  memorial,  stating,  in  all  their  force,  the  reasons 
for  putting  an  end  to  the  custom,  and  appealing  for  sup- 
port and  protection. 

"  But  if  the  effect  of  what  has  been  done  is  merely  to 
induce  Her  Majesty  to  abstain  from  attending,  things 
would  appear  to  me  to  be  rather  different.  For  then, 
if  she  were  reluctant  to  give  it  up,  and  if,  as  you  appear 
to  suppose,  there  be  a  strong  general  feeling  in  favor  of 
its  continuance,  it  may  be  a  strong  measure  to  interfere 
with  people's  enjoyment  of  what  they  consider  a  harm- 


1847.]  ABOLITION  OF   TRANSPORTATION.       173 

less  spectacle.  In  this  case  it  may  be  better  to  make  a 
compromise,  putting  an  end  to  the  plunder,  and  re- 
straining the  intemperance,  but  permitting  the  gather- 
ing, and  a  subscription  from  those  willing  to  contribute. 
I  don't  pretend  to  give  advice  in  this  uncertainty,  but 
these  ideas  occur  to  me  as  worth  consideration." 

The  evening  after  the  above  was  written,  Denman, 
having  run  up  from  Hertford  to  London,  to  be  present 
at  the  House  of  Lords,  delivered  a  very  powerful 
speech  there,  against  the  abolition  of  Transportation  as 
a  secondary  punishment,  on  the  occasion  of  Lord  Grey's 
Bill  for  the  Custody  of  Offenders,  &c.J 

While  agreeing  that  the  convict  establishment  of  Nor- 
folk Island  must  be  broken  up,  and  transportation  to 
Van  Diemen's  land  suspended,  he  expressed  the  strongest 
possible  opinion  against  the  total  abolition  of  transporta- 
tion. 

"  When  he  heard  it  proposed  that  that  great  power 
which  consisted  in  the  terrors  of  Transportation  should 
be  abolished,  that  that  great  terror  should  be  withdrawn 
from  the  minds  of  those,  who,  if  not  actually  criminals, 
might  be  contemplating  crime,  he  could  not  but  regard 
such  intention  with  the  greatest  possible  dismay ;  he 
could  use  no  lighter  word. 

"  He  did  not  believe,  what  was  sometimes  stated,  that 
the  punishment  of  transportation  was  without  the 
greatest  terror  for  offenders.  He  had  seen  examples, 
not  constantly,  but  on  many  occasions,  of  the  over- 
whelming terrors  of  transportation." 

He  then  dwelt,  with  great  impressiveness,  on  the 
topics  so  frequently  adverted  to  in  these  discussions — on 
the  great  importance  of  entirely  removing  from  their 
old  haunts  and  associates  the  more  opulent  and  influen- 
tial members  of  the  criminal  classes,  such  as  the  profes- 
sional receivers  of  stolen  goods ;  on  the  great  and 
serious  multiplication  of  resident  criminals,  and  on  the 
probability  that  a  system  of  secondary  punishment  ad- 
ministered in  England  would  never  be  effectually  carried 
out ;  finally,  on  the  impossibility  of  securing  for  criminals 
at  home  what  was  provided  in  the  colonies,  the  begin- 

'  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  ex.  p.  898  et  seq. 


i74  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1847. 

ning  of  a  new  career  of  life,  after  their  allotted  period 
of  punishment  had  expired.1 

Had  this  country  alone  been  concerned  in  the  ques- 
tion of  maintaining  the  system  of  Colonial  Transporta- 
tion, these  arguments  would  have  been  unanswerable ; 
but  in  face  of  the  determined  opposition  of  the  Colonies 
to  the  continuance  of  the  system,  the  mother  couutry 
had  to  give  way,  and,  except  on  a  limited  scale  to  West- 
tern  Australia,  transportation  as  a  secondary  punishment 
has  been  necessarily  abandoned  ;  not,  however,  without 
to  a  great  degree,  entailing  the  consequences  which  the 
opponents  of  its  abolition  foresaw  and  foretold. 

With  regard  to  the  terrors  of  Transportation  as  a  sen- 
tence when  pronounced  by  an  able  judge,  and  also  as 
giving  a  notion  of  some  of  the  qualities  that  made  Den- 
man  incomparable  as  an  administrator  of  the  Criminal 
Law,  the  present  writer  may  be  permitted  to  relate  a 
circumstance  of  which  he  was  a  witness  in  the  criminal 
court  at  Chelmsford,  some  years  before  the  period  now 
under  consideration. 

Two  men  had  been  convicted  before  Lord  Denman  of 
rape  under  most  aggravated  circumstances  ;  they  were 
navigators  of  the  coarsest  and  roughest  order.  The 
Chief  Justice,  in  passing  sentence,  having  commented 
on  the  heinous  nature  of  their  offense,  awarded  them 
fourteen  years'  transportation.  The  men  stood  stolidly 
insensible  ;  then,  after  a  slight  pause,  he  added,  looking 
fixedly  at  them,  and  raising  his  majestic  voice  to  its  full 
compass,  "  and  do  not  think  that  a  light  sentence;  so  far 
from  it,  that  I  have  seen  old  and  hardened  offenders — • 
men  who,  having  been  sentenced  to  transportation 
before,  well  know  what  transportation  is — I  have  seen 
those  men  sink  fainting  in  the  dock  before  me  when  it 
has  been  my  duty  to  pronounce  upon  them  that  dread- 
ful doom." 

The  effect  was  electric ;  the  two  human  brutes  in  the 
dock  trembled  and  grew  blanched  with  terror,  and  many 
a  yet  undeveloped  member  of  the  criminal  classes  in  the 
crowded  Court,  many  a  one,  "  who,  if  not  yet  criminal, 
might  be  contemplating  crime,"  and  who  had  often  per- 
haps talked  jestingly  of  a  "  trip  to  Botany  Bay,"  stood 
1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  ex.  pp.  936-939. 


1847.3         SUPPRESSION    OF    MONTEM.  175 

horror  struck  at  the  dreadful  nature  of  a  sentence  which 
the  law  had  made  second  only  to  death  itself,  and  which, 
in  those  days  of  Norfolk  Island,  involved  sufferings  and 
infamies  from  which  even  death  itself  would  have  been  a 
release. 

The  questions  stated  in  his  previous  letter  as  to  Mon- 
tem  having  been  answered,  Denman,  who  had  in  the 
meantime  resumed  his  duties  as  Judge  of  Assize,  wrote 
to  Hodgson  again  on  the  same  subject,  from  Chelmsford, 
on  March  8,  as  follows  : 

"  After  hearing  a  lecture  from  the  Sheriff's  chaplain 
[on  occasion  of  opening  the  commission],  I  sit  down  to 
give  you  a  line  upon  Montem.  My  general  opinion  is 
that  you  should  principally  rest  on  the  goodness  of  your 
case  and  the  actual  exercise  of  authority.  If  a  very 
powerful  counter-demonstration  could  be  procured,  it 
would  probably  be  decisive :  but  as  the  greater  activity 
of  the  other  side  may  obtain  a  numerical  majority,  any 
appeal  on  your  part  to  that  test  would  be  dangerous. 
Among  the  Judges  you  are  strong.  Shadwell  has  often 
expressed  to  me  his  anxious  desire  for  the  abolition.  I 
called  on  Coleridge  to-day,  who  has  been  invested  by 
the  enemy,  but  expresses  himself  ready  to  sign  a  memo- 
rial in  favor  of  what  has  been  done  by  you,  if  such  course 
should  be  thought  advisable.  Of  Patteson's  feeling  in 
the  same  way  I  have  no  doubt ;  but  we  are  all  out  of 
town  [on  circuit]  for  some  weeks.  I  have  heavy  and 
shocking  work  here." 

Not  long  after,  the  quaint,  but  of  late  grossly  abused, 
revelries  of  Montem  were  suppressed,  greatly  to  the 
benefit  of  Eton  as  a  school,  but  a  good  deal  against  the 
grain  of  many  fine  old  laudatores  temporis  acti,  who 
never  forgave  the  Provost  for  laying  sacrilegious  hands 
on  the  revered  institution  of  their  boyhood.  An  exceed- 
ingly competent  witness,  an  old  Etonian,  thoroughly 
devoted  to  Eton,  thus  recently  expressed  his  opinion  on 
Montem  to  the  present  writer  : 

"  It  was  a  great  disgrace  to  a  great  school.  I  was  at 
two  celebrations,  and  they  weigh  on  my  mind  as  two  of 
the  dreariest  days  of  my  l:fe.  Loads  of  ill-dressed  food 
washed  down  with  bad  champagne,  the  cost  to  be 
deducted  from  the  proceeds  of  that  vulgar  highway  rob- 


i76  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1847. 

bery  called  '  Salt,'  reducing  what  might  have  been  suffi- 
cient to  start  the  son  of  poor  parents  in  life,  to  a  sum 
barely  enough  to  give  him  a  plethora  of  pocket  money 
The  proof  of  all  this  is  that  the  Captain  of  the  School, 
who  was  the  nominal  recipient  of  the  money,  was  never 
benefited  by  it. 

"There  was  of  course  a  furious  stand  made  for  the 
time-dfohonored  abuse,  and  it  required  no  little  courage 
to  abolish  it.  The  Provost  showed  great  firmness,  and 
deserves  all  the  credit,  though  he  doubtless  was  fortified 
and  assisted  by  the  warm  support  and  approval  of  Lord 
Denman." 

After  the  matter  had  been  decided  on,  Denman  wrote 
to  Hodgson,  who  had  been  very  greatly  worried  about 
it,  and  had  gone  down  to  Brighton  to  refresh  him- 
self. The  letter  alludes  also  to  another  vexed  Eton 
question  of  the  time,  the  Slough  and  Windsor  Branch 
Railway. 

"  Cum  te  Brightonias  tranquilla  refecerit  aura, 
Care  gener,  caram,  et  cara  cum  conjuge,  prolem, 
Vcxatum  compone  animum,  tumidoque  rebelles 
Da  pelago  curas,  atque  obliviscere  Montem.1 

"  I  was  sorry  to  hear  of  Bessie's  influenza,  but  feel 
strong  hope  of  her  complete  recovery,  and  that  you  will 
all  profit  by  the  fine  air  of  the  coast,  if  you  will  but 
throw  useless  cares  behind.  This  year's  Eton  meeting 
can  not  expect  to  be  highly  popular,  but  it  will  pass  over 
quietly,  or,  if  the  disaffected  choose  to  signalize  their  ill- 
humor,  they  will  be  the  only  sufferers.  I  daresay  Hallam 
would  attend,  if  Dr.  Hawtrey  desired  it,  but  with  us  the 
first  day  of  Trinity  Term  [May  22]  imports  the  dining 
together  of  all  the  Common-Law  Judges.  I  mentioned 
your  wish  to  Shadwell,  who,  however,  did  not  seem  eager 
to  attend. 

"As  to  the  railway  [Slough  and  Windsor  branch]  I  am 
required  to  attend  as  a.  witness.  My  evidence  is  wanted 
to  show  that  the  near  approach  of  steam-engines,  &c., 
to  the  bathing-places  will  be  injurious  to  Eton.  Do  not 
you  think  it  will  ?  I  do  with  great  confidence.  Whether 

1  "  When,  dear  son-in-law,  the  refreshing  air  of  Brighton  has  set  you  up — 
and  your  wife  and  children  too — you  must  calm  your  troubled  spirit,  give 
care  to  the  wind  and  waves,  and  forget  all  about  Montem." 


1847.]  CORRESPONDENCE.  177 

you  can  avoid  a  railway,  and  whether  the  line  proposed 
may  not  be  the  least  nuisance  compatible  with  it,  I 
have  formed  no  opinion  ;  still  less  do  I  place  myself  in 
competition  with  the  college  authorities  as  to  the 
prudence  of  adopting  it,  and  the  satisfactory  nature  of 
the  precautions  promised.  This  may  make  my  evidence 
of  small  value,  or  even  turn  it  the  other  way,  if  on  cross- 
examination  I  should  be  convinced  that  this  would  be 
the  best  of  all  possible  lines.  Still,  the  parties  have  a 
right  to  my  opinion." 

On  this  Spring  Assizes  Lord  Denman  spent  two  or 
three  days,  between  the  end  of  the  work  at  Maidstone 
and  its  commencement  at  Lewes,  at  Leeds  Castle,  whenre> 
on  March  21,  he  sent  a  letter  containing  the  following 
lines  to  Lady  Denman  : 

"  Contrary  to  all  expectation,  we  finished  our  work  at 
Maidstone  last  night  [Saturday],  and  having  postponed 
the  business  at  Lewes  till  Tuesday,  have  the  intervening 
days  idle  on  our  hands.  Matters  might  have  been  bet- 
ter arranged  if  the  necessity  for  this  change  of  times  had 
been  foreseen.  We  are  meanwhile  very  hospitably  en- 
tertained by  Mr.  Wykeham  Martin,  a  great  and  early 
friend  of  Tom's,  and  have  had  a  delightful  ride  over  a 
fine  open  country,  and  return  to  this  noble  castle,  for- 
merly the  mansion  of  Lord  Fairfax,  Cromwell's  colleague, 
whose  grim  portrait  and  buff  jerkin  are  carefully  pre- 
served. On  a  sun-bright  day,  with  a  kind  and  unaffected 
family,  everything  is  genial  both  within  doors  and  with- 
out." 

In  the  spring  of  1847,  tne  publication  of  Prince  de 
Joinville's  celebrated  brochure,  and  various  other  circum- 
stances, had  given  rise  to  some  apprehensions  as  to  the 
possibility  of  a  successful  attack  on  our  coasts  by  a 
French  fleet,  and  also  to  serious  doubts  as  to  the  imme- 
diate efficiency  of  our  own  naval  defenses.  It  was  con- 
sidered desirable,  in  some  quarters,  to  rouse  the  public 
feeling  on  the  subject,  and  Captain  Denman,  with  char- 
acteristic ardor,  was  minded  at  once  to  rush  into  the  fray 
with  a  pamphlet.  His  father,  whom  he  had  consulted 
on  the  policy  of  this  proceeding,  sent  him  some  admira- 
ble advice  in  a  letter,  from  which  the  following  are  ex- 
tracts : 


178  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1847. 

"Portland  Place:  April,  14,  1847. 

"  Now  for  your  letter  [proposed  printed   letter],    of 
which  I  have  thought  a  good  deal.     I  distrust  myself  as 
an   adviser,    because,    if    I   were   in   your  position,    my 
feelings  would   have   been    exactly   the   same   as   your 
own. 

"  A  great  evil  is  to  be  prevented,  a  great  good  is  to  be 
done. 

"  Those  particularly  charged  with  the  duty,  are  not 
sufficiently  alive  to  its  obligation  or  to  the  passing  ex- 
igency, and  an  individual  thinks  that  he  can  arouse  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  excite  them  to  the  necessary  task.  This 
is  the  thing  to  be  effected  by  the  publication  of  that  in- 
dividual's views  and  opinions.  Now,  consider,  in  the 
first  place,  the  probability  of  making  a  first  impression, 
The  public,  as  you  truly  say,  is  devoted  to  the  love  of 
lucre  and  the  active  pursuit  of  it.  '  'Tis  Avarice  all,  Am- 
bition is  no  more.'  A  most  unfavorable  disposition  for 
public  spirit,  or  moral  rectitude,  or  any  elevated 
thoughts  whatever,  and  seeking  rather  an  excuse  for 
avoiding  them. 

"  Can  there  be  a  stronger  presumptive  excuse  thaa 
that  the  authorities  do  not  seem  impressed  with  the 
danger?  But  is  it  a  mere  excuse  ?  Is  it  not  something 
like  a  good  reason  ?  Men  in  authority,  of  good  under- 
standing, of  candid  minds,  possessed  of  all  the  informa- 
tion, with  every  motive  that  can  actuate  any  other  of 
the  Queen's  subjects,  in  addition  to  the  sense  of  duty 
and  of  character,  do  not  perceive  the  danger  to  be  im- 
minent. They  look  out  in  full  day,  and  through  the 
best  glasses,  and  discern  no  breakers  ahead.  Surely  the 
passengers  may  feel  a  natural  confidence  that  all  is  well,. 
and  distrust  opinions  and  arguments  pointing  the  other 
way.  For  my  own  part,  I  fall  into  this  way  of  thinking,, 
spite  of  the  vigorous  proceedings  in  France.  They  may 
be  principally  the  result  of  apprehension,  though  not 
without  a  secret  or  professed  hope,  in  De  Joinville  and 
his  followers,  of  naval  glories.  Great  means  of  material 
mischief  have  indeed  been  provided,  but  there  are  strong 
counteracting  causes.  Both  in  France  and  in  England 
the  boutiquier  spirit  has  taken  strong  hold  of  the  bulk 
of  the  people — peace  is  evidently  the  idol  of  both,  and 


1 84  7 .  J  CORRESPONDENCE.  1 7  9 

war  is  held  in  the  greatest  horror.  I  have  a  notion,  too, 
that  public  opinion  throughout  the  world  would  revolt 
against  any  unprovoked  and  wanton  injury  by  either 
country  on  the  peaceful  inhabitants  of  the  other;  and 
further,  I  believe  that  in  case  of  real  danger  the  spirit 
and  energy  of  the  people  would  be  roused  by  the  aggres- 
sion to  efforts  of  which  in  our  unalarmed  state  we  do 
not  fancy  either  capable." 

Adverting  to  the  remedy  (impressment)  which  the 
Captain  wished  to  propose,  and  admitting  that  if  the 
Admiralty  continued  apathetic,  and  if  an  efficient  plan 
could  be  devised,  the  temptation  to  promulgate  it  would 
become  very  strong  indeed,  he  proceeds  thus  : 

"  I  should  say,  however,  that  the  efficiency  of  the  pro- 
posed plan  ought  in  the  first  instance  to  be  made  mani- 
fest to  some  of  the  best  judges.  Some  consideration 
ought  also  to  be  given  to  the  probable  effect  on  the  pro- 
jector himself.  If  offense  is  given,  if  the  plan  is  rejected 
as  visionary,  positive  harm  may  be  added  to  loss  of  caste 
in  him.  And  even  if  it  be  reluctantly  adopted,  he  is 
sometimes  ridiculed  as  having  only  deprived  the  superior 
of  his  just  credit  for  what  he  was  just  going  to  do. 

"  These  are  very  crude  remarks,  very  little  like  "  ma- 
turer  counsel."  On  one  point  I  think  I  could  feel  confi- 
dent :  the  propriety  of  abstaining  from  any  statement 
of  existing  dangers  that  would  generally  be  thought 
extravagant." 

In  the  Summer  Assizes  of  1847,  Denman,  as  he  had  so 
often  done  before,  traveled  the  Midland  Circuit,  soon 
after  his  return  from  which  he  wrote  from  Middleton  to 
his  friend  Coleridge  a  letter  from  which  the  following 
are  extracts : 

"  Not  an  hour  will  I  delay  answering  your  kind  re- 
membrance and  cordial  letter,  having  had  no  communi- 
c  "ion  with  any  colleague  during  the  circuit,  except  on 
oiii-  case  of  conviction  submitted  by  Wightman  for  our 
opinion.  Our  circuit  was  a  journey  of  pleasure,  occa- 
sionally diversified  with  legal  affairs,  rari  nantes.  We 
had  too  much  time  everywhere,  and  for  that  very  reason 
no  l-.isure,  as  all  was  taken  up  in  visiting  and  travels — 
l  business  of  the  most  ordinary  kind,  and  performed 
accordingly.  Like  you,  I  am  annoyed  at  the  manner  of 


i8o  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1847. 

conducting  the  criminal  business.  Few  prisoners  were 
defended,  scarcely  any  case  opened  for  the  prosecution, 
though  in  no  instance  was  I  obliged  to  act  as  counsel. 
But  the  utter  carelessness  as  to  the  truth  coming  out, 
and  the  habit  of  slurring  over  damnatory  proofs,  required 
more  vigilance  in  that  direction  [viz.,  for  the  prosecution] 
than  a  judge  is  fond  of  displaying.  I  can  not  help  fancy- 
ing that  the  Bar  is  becoming  more  a  stage  of  transition 
than  a  status — an  apprenticeship  exacted  by  custom  for 
obtaining  some  office,  such  as  that  of  Revising  Barrister, 
County  Court  Judge,  or  Commissioner  of  some  sort.  I 
heartily  wish  the  judges  were  deprived  of  all  patronage 
of  this  kind.  Towards  the  end  of  the  assizes  the  looks 
of  expectation  and  disappointment  are  harrowing.  With 
regard  to  the  election,1  I  think  Edinburgh*  a  heavy  blow 
and  great  discouragement  to  popular  reformers.  That 
and  Hobhouse's  defeat  and  Hawes'  show  how  little  hold 
the  ministry  have  on  public  opinion  among  the  middle 
classes.  Their  real  strength,  however — the  absence  of 
competition — remains  undiminished,  or  rather  increased, 
and  this  must  make  all  reasonable  men  desirous  of  their 
acting  creditably.  Roebuck's  absence  I  heartily  lament, 
as  it  will  secure  Weymouth  and  every  other  corrupt  and 
unimprovable  place  from  their  just  doom.  I  rejoice  with 
you  for  the  emancipation  of  Gloucester  and  Monmouth, 
and  am  delighted  with  the  manly,  spirited,  and  able  ex- 
ertions of  Sir  George  Grey.  Talking  of  Monmouth,  I 
was  saying  how  inconsistent  were  our  complaints  against 
lodgings  anywhere  when  we  never  complained  there, 
where  they  surely  are  the  worst  of  all.  I  am  glad  the 
cause  is  removed  ;  perhaps  we  owe  it  to  Lord  Granville 
Somerset.  Let  us  try  our  influence  at  Gloucester  with 
Mr.  Grantly  Bekeley. 

"  Erie  must  have  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  Oxford  Circuit 
[on  which  he  had  gone  this  summer  with  Coleridge] — 
that  fine  country,  new  to  him,  in  company  with  an  old 
friend,  with  business  enough  to  excite  and  amuse  him. 
Your  postscript  was  not  the  least  interesting  part  of 
your  letter,  as  I  had  heard  nothing  of  Patteson  before. 

1  The  Parliament,  which  had  lasted  since  August,  1841,  had  been  dissolved 
on  July  23,  1847. 

*  Where  Macaulay  was  unseated. 


i847-J  CORRESPONDENCE.  181 

I  trust  we  shall  all  meet  in  Westminster  Hall,  recruited 
and  refreshed. 

"  My  holiday  began  here  on  the  8th  [of  August], 
Warwick  having  come  to  an  end  the  day  before.  The 
music  of  the  axe  has  been  sounding  ever  since.  Days 
bright  and  rainy  by  turns.  This  morning  glorious,  but 
now  the  birds  fly  low.  The  foliage  luxuriant  beyond 
example ;  the  harvest,  early  for  us,  a-gathering.  No 
study  of  any  kind  but  French  novels,  and  all  the  books 
of  the  Bakewell  Club  at  once  upon  the  table.  No 
visitors  yet  but  Miss  Macaulay.  George  [now  Mr.  Jus- 
tice Denman]  expected  soon." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

BURON  V.  DENMAN — HAMPDEN'S  CASE — HUTT'S  COMMIT- 
TEE— GREAT  SLAVE  TRADE   SPEECHES   OF    1848. 

A.  D.  1849.    Ml.  69. 

THE  year  1848  was  a  busy  and  exciting  one  for 
Denman,  too  much  so  indeed,  for  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  labor  and  anxiety  he  under- 
went in  the  course  of  it,  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  un- 
dermining his  health,  and  preparing  the  way  for  the 
malady  which  first  openly  attacked  him  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing. The  intensity,  more  especially,  with  which  he 
felt,  thought,  and  worked  on  the  subject  of  the  Slave 
Trade,  produced  a  strain  on  the  nervous  system,  which, 
when  added  to  the  continuous  brain  work  imposed  upon 
him  by  his  judicial  and  other  labors,  overtasked  even  his 
strong  powers,  and  hastened  the  stroke  which  finally 
shattered  them.  To  the  suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade 
Denman  gave  his  whole  heart,  soul,  and  strength  ;  he 
regarded  the  abominable  traffic  as  the  monster  crime  and 
evil  of  the  whole  world ;  and  that  vehement  hatred  of 
oppression  and  wrong  which  throughout  life  had  been  a 
prominent  feature  in  his  character,  never  allowed  him  to 
rest  or  to  slumber  in  what  he  felt  to  be  the  great  and 
sacred  cause  of  trampling  out  the  accursed  wickedness 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  firmly  believed  that  the 
efforts  of  the  squadron,  if  resolute  and  firmly  directed, 
not  crippled  and  paralyzed  by  the  captious  doubts  of 
lawyers  and  the  timorous  over-caution  of  ministers,  were 
the  sole  means,  under  Providence,  of  finally  extinguish- 
ing the  Slave  Trade. 

Nothing  distressed  him  more  than  to  see  the  growing 
indifference  and  levity  with  which,  under  the  influence 
of  able  editors  and  economical  doctrinaires,  men  of  cul- 
tivation, intelligence,  and  humanity  were  disposed  to 


1848.]  BURON    v.     DENMAN,  183 

treat  the  sufferings  of  the  irrepressible  "  nigger,"  while 
they  not  only  questioned  the  utility  of  the  squadron, 
but  actually  represented  it  as  a  means  by  which  the 
area  of  the  slave-hunter's  operations  had  been  extended, 
the  horrors  of  the  Middle  Passage  increased,  and  the 
mortality  of  the  slave  cargoes  more  than  doubled.  Poor, 
selfish,  and  half-hearted  talk  of  this  kind,  drove  even  the 
calm  and  equable  temper  of  Denman  beyond  the  limits 
of  moderation  ;  his  earnestness  in  this  work  was  a  life 
and  death  earnestness,  and  it  made  him  mad  to  hear  the 
parrot  prate  with  which  these  sciolists  of  political  econ- 
omy retailed  the  arguments  of  the  abler  and  astuter 
wire-pullers,  who  had  many  of  them  a  direct  money  in- 
terest in  upholding  the  iniquitous  traffic. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  year  came  on  the  trial  at  Bar 
of  Buron  v.  Denman,  the  plaintiff  being  one  of  the  slave- 
traders  and  slave-owners  who  had  a  part  interest  in  the 
barracoon  on  the  Gallinas  river,  which  Captain  Denman 
had  destroyed,  and  the  action  being  a  suit  for  damages 
against  the  gallant  Captain  in  respect  of  the  money  loss 
caused  by  its  destruction,  and  by  the  liberation  of  the 
slaves  who  had  been  warehoused  in  it  for  export. 

The  case  was  tried  in  the  Exchequer  on  February  14, 
15,  16,  1848,  before  four  judges — Barons  Parke,  Alder- 
son,  Rolfe  and  Platt — and  on  the  last  of  the  three  days 
judgment  was  given. 

The  facts  already  stated  (in  Chapter  28)  as  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  barracoon  and  the  liberation  of  the  slaves 
stored  in  it  having  been  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
jury,  the  Court  held  :  First,  that  the  plaintiff  had  a  prop- 
erty in  his  slaves,  and  might  maintain  trespass  for  their 
seizure,  the  Slave  Trade  not  being  piratical  by  the  laiv  of 
nations,  and  it  not  appearing  that  Spain  (to  which  nation 
the  plaintiff  belonged)  had  passed  any  law  abolishing  the 
Slave  Trade,  pursuant  to  the  treaty  embodied  in  6  and 
7  VVm.  IV.  c.  6.  But  they  also  held  : 

Secondly:  that  the  ratification  of  Captain  Denman's 
act  by  the  Ministers  of  State  [in  the  letters  already  set 
forth  in  Chapter  28]  was  equivalent  to  a  prior  command, 
and  thus  rendered  it  an  act  of  State,  for  which  the  Crown 
alone  was  responsible.1 

1  Buron  v.  Denman,  2  Exch.  Rep.  pp.  167-190.     Parke,  B.,  only  assented 


184  ZTFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1848. 

Thus,  in  the  result,  Captain  Denman  escaped  the 
ignominy  of  having  to  pay  damages  to  the  slave-owner  for 
having  deprived  him  of  his  slaves;  but  in  principle  the 
Court  affirmed  the  position  that  the  slave-owner  had  the 
right  in  England  to  recover  damages  for  his  human  chat- 
tels when  taken  from  him  by  one  of  Her  Majesty's  offi- 
cers charged  and  entrusted  with  the  suppression  of  the 
Slave  Trade;  and  he  only  failed  so  to  recover  them 
because  that  officer's  act,  having  been  approved  of  by  the 
Government,  was  treated  as  having  been  commanded  by 
the  Government,  so  as  in  the  particular  case  to  exoner- 
ate him  from  persoral  liability. 

It  is  a  decision  that  reflects  no  honor  on  the  juris- 
prudence of  England  :  well  might  Denman  say  of  it,  as 
he  did  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  it  was  the  first  time 
the  claim  of  an  owner  of  human  beings,  made  slaves  for 
the  purposes  of  trade,  had  been  recognized  in  an  English 
Court  of  Justice.1  May  it  be  the  last ! 

Shortly  before  the  case  of  Bur  on  v.  Denman  had  been 
decided  in  the  Exchequer,  the  Queen's  Bench  had  been 
engaged  in  the  consideration  of  a  matter  which,  in  its 
day,  formed  the  topic  of  all  dinner  parties  in  London, 
and  of  all  rectories,  curacies,  and  serious  circles  through- 
out the  country,  the  question,  viz.,  whether  the  Court 
should  or  should  not  issue  a  mandamus  to  compel  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  then  Dr.  Howley,  to  allow 
certain  persons  to  appear  and  be  heard  as  opposers  of 
the  confirmation  of  Dr.  Hampden's  election  to  the 
Bishopric  of  Hereford. 

The  length  of  learned  arguments  to  which  this  case 
gave  rise  before  the  courts,  maybe  judged  of  from  the 
fact  that  Mr.  Jebb's  admirable  report  of  the  proceedings 
is  a  thick  and  closely-printed  volume  of  580  pages.8 

Happily,  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  present  purpose 
admits  of  being  stated  in  comparatively  brief  compass. 
A  word  first  as  to  the  antecedents  of  Dr.  Hampden.  Dr. 

with  some  hesitation  to  the  second  ruling.  A  bill  of  exceptions  was  tendered, 
but  the  plaintiff  afterwards  discontinued  his  suit,  certain  terms  of  settlement 
of  this  and  similar  actions  having  been  agreed  to  by  Government. 

'On  February  22,  1848.  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xcvi.  p. 
1055- 

''Case  of  Dr.  Hampden,  by  Richard  Jebb,  Esq.,  Barrister-at-law,  Bunning 
and  Co.  1849. 


1848.]  DR.     HAMPDEN"  S    CASE.  185 

RennDickson  Hampden  having  been,  in  1836,  appointed 
by  Lord  Melbourne  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the 
University  of  Oxford,  the  University  at  once  assembled 
in  Convocation,  and,  on  the  ground  of  certain  alleged 
unorthodox  opinions  contained  in  Dr.  Hampden's  Bamp- 
ton  Lectures  (preached  in  1831),  and  in  a  pamphlet  of 
later  date,  entitled  "  Observations  on  Religious  Dissent," 
proceeded,  by  solemn  decree,  to  deprive  Dr.  Hampden 
of  all  they  could,  viz.  certain  privileges  and  emoluments 
theretofore  invariably  enjoyed  by  all  persons  holding  the 
office  of  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity.  This  decree,  on 
motion  being  made  in  Convocation  to  that  effect  six 
years  afterwards,  in  1842,  they  solemnly  refused  to  re- 
peal, and  it  remained  in  full  force  and  effect  at  the  time 
of  the  proceedings  now  to  be  related. 

Dr.  Musgrave,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  having,  late  in 
1847,  been  elevated  to  the  Archbishopric  of  York,  an 
alarming  rumor  began  to  spread  in  ecclesiastical  circles 
that  the  heretical  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  was  about 
to  be  nominated  for  the  vacant  see. 

Upon  this,  thirteen  bishops  drew  up,  signed,  and 
transmitted  to  Lord  John  Russell,  a  remonstrance 
against  the  appointment,  to  which  Lord  John  replied, 
by  a  communication  dated  "  Chesham  Place,  December 
8,  1847,"  and  which,  of  all  the  celebrated  letters  of  its 
celebrated  writer,  is  perhaps  the  neatest,  the  most  tell- 
ing, and  the  most  incisive.  What  the  Chancery  lawyers 
call  the  charging  part  of  it,  is  contained  in  the  following 
paragraphs,  the  temptation  to  transcribe  which  is  irre- 
sistible: 

"  In  these  circumstances,  it  appears  to  me  that  should 
I  withdraw  my  recommendation  of  Dr.  Hampden, 
which  has  been  sanctioned  by  the  Queen,  I  should  vir- 
tually assent  to  the  doctrine  that  a  decree  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford  is  a  perpetual  ban  of  exclusion  against  a 
clergyman  of  eminent  learning  and  irreproachable  life  ; 
and  that,  in  fact,  the  supremacy  which  is  now,  by  law, 
vested  in  the  Crown,  is  to  be  transferred  to  a  majority 
of  the  members  of  one  of  our  Universities. 

"  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  many  of  the  most 
prominent  among  that  majority  have  since  joined  the 
communion  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 


1 86  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1848. 

"  I  deeply  regret  the  feeling  that  is  said  to  be  common 
among  the  clergy  on  this  subject.  But  I  can  not  sacrifice 
the  reputation  of  Dr.  Hampden,  the  rights  of  the 
Crown,  and  what  I  believe  to  be  the  true  interests  of 
the  Church,  to  a  feeling  which  I  believe  to  be  founded 
on  misapprehension  and  fomented  by  prejudice. 

"At  the  same  time,  I  thank  your  Lordships  for  an  in- 
terposition which  I  believe  to  be  intended  for  the  public 
benefit. 

"  I  have,  &c., 
"J.  RUSSELL." 

On  December  16  the  Queen  issued  her  Conge  d'Elire 
and  Letters  Missive  for  the  election  of  Dr.  Hampden  as 
Bishop  of  Hereford;  on  December  28,  the  election  took 
place,  under  solemn  protest  from  the  Dean,  Dr.  Mere- 
weather,  and  nothing  further  remained  to  be  performed 
but  the  confirmation  of  the  bishop-elect  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury. 

A  royal  mandate  having  been  issued  to  the  Arch- 
bishop directing  him  to  confirm,  he  accordingly  fixed 
January  II,  1848,  as  the  time,  and  St.  Mary  of  the  Bow, 
in  Cheapside,  as  the  place,  for  the  confirmation. 

It  being  known  that  an  effort  would  then  and  there  be 
made  to  protest  against  the  confirmation,  Dr.  Barnaby, 
the  Vicar-General,  whose  ordinary  function  it  was  to 
act  on  such  occasions  for  the  Archbishop,  was  in  this 
instance  reinforced  by  the  powerful  aid  of  Dr.  Lushing- 
ton  and  Sir  John  Dodson,  named  by  the  Archbishop  as 
his  associates. 

The  apparitor  of  the  Archbishop's  Court  having  made 
proclamation,  in  the  old,  immemorial  form,  calling  on 
persons  who  might  object  to  the  confirmation  of  Dr. 
Hampden  as  Bishop  of  Hereford,  to  come  forward  "  and 
make  their  objections  in  due  form  of  law,  and  they  shall  be 
heard"  several  objectors,  or  as  the  the  proper  term  it 
seems  is,  "  opposers"  at  once  came  forward.  Hereupon 
argument  was  permitted,  but  on  the  sole  point  whether, 
notwithstanding  the  plain  terms  of  the  proclamation  just 
read,  any  opposers  at  all  could  at  this  stage  of  the  pro- 
ceedings appear  and  be  heard.  Dr.  Lushington  (Sir 
John  Dodson  entirely  agreeing),  grounding  himself  on 
what  had  been  the  invariable  practice,  from  the  time  of 


1848.]  DR.     HAMPDEWS     CASE.  ,  187 

the  passing  of  the  statute  25  Henry  VIII.,  to  the  present 
day,  and  on  the  position  that  confirmation  by  the  Arch- 
bishop was  a  merely  ministerial,  not  a  judical  act,  held 
clearly  that  no  opposers  to  the  confirmation  of  Dr. 
Hampden  as  Bishop  of  Hereford  could  then  and  there 
appear  or  be  heard  ;  immediately  after  which  decision 
the  opposers,  which  seems  hard,  were,  under  another  old 
form,  accused  of  contumacy  for  not  appearing;  and  then 
the  confirmation  was  solemnly  pronounced  and  published 
in  due  form  of  law. 

Three  days  after,  on  January  14, 1848,  Sir  Fitzroy  Kelly, 
in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  moved  for  a  rule  to  show 
cause  why  a  mandamus  should  not  issue  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  Dr.  Barnaby,  his  Vicar-Gen- 
eral, commanding  them  or  one  of  them  to  allow  the 
opposers  of  Dr.  Hampden's  confirmation  to  appear  and 
be  heard  before  them. 

On  January  24  and  subsequent  days,  cause  was  shown 
by  Sir  John  Jervis  and  five  other  learned  counsel,  in 
lengthened  and  able  arguments,  which  were  replied  to  by 
Sir  Fitzroy  Kelly  and  four  other  learned  counel,  with 
equal  length  and  ability  ;  then  Sir  John  Jervis  claimed  and 
was  allowed  to  exercise  the  right  of  general  reply,  and 
finally,  after  four  days  of  argument,  on  February!,  1848, 
the  judges,  who  were  equally  divided  in  opinion  (Patteson 
and  Coleridge  being  in  favor  of  granting  the  mandamus, 
and  Denman  and  Erie  against  it)  delivered  their  judg- 
ments seriatim. 

The  judgment  of  Lord  Denman,  with  which  alone 
the  present  narrative  is  concerned,  was  quite  worthy  of 
his  great  reputation  :  learned,  sagacious,  eloquent,  and. 
what  was  rare  with  him,  enlivened  here  and  there  with 
strokes  of  grave  humor,  such  as  Sir  Thomas  More  on  a 
similar  occasion,  might  not  have  disdained  to  employ  ; 
and  to  which  the  subject  matter  in  some  of  its  aspects 
almost  irresistibly  invited.  For  what  could  be  grossei 
than  the  absurdity  of  first  calling  on  all  opposers  to  ap- 
pear and  be  heard,  then  formally  deciding  that  they 
could  neither  appear  nor  be  heard,  and  then  finally 
recording  against  them  an  accusation  of  contumacy  for 
not  appearing,  and  all  this  in  the  course  of  a  solemn 
function  began  and  ended  by  prayer!  A  grave  farce 


188  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1848. 

gravely  carried  out  in  the  midst  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, equaling,  if  not  exceeding,  in  comic  drollery  any  of 
the  quaint  inventions  with  which  Rabelais,  in  his  immor- 
tal burlesque,  sought  to  cast  ridicule  on  the  proceedings 
of  his  Chats  Fourre's,  in  the  old  Paris  Chamber  des 
Escomptes. 

In  the  course  of  the  exhaustive  historical  investigation 
with  which  the  judgment  opened,  the  Chief  Justice  took 
the  opportunity  of  paying  the  following  graceful  tribute 
to  Cranmer,  who  had  been  somewhat  disparagingly 
spoken  of  in  the  course  of  the  argument,  by  one  of  the 
counsel  of  the  opposers.1 

One  of  the  counsel  for  the  Crown,  with  the  view  of 
exposing  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  confirmation 
by  the  Archbishop  of  a  bishop's  election  under  the  25 
of  Henry  VIII.  was  meant  to  be  more  than  a  mere 
ministerial  act,  had  asked  whether  such  a  king  as  Henry 
was  likely  at  one  and  the  same  moment  to  deprive  the 
Pope  of  his  vote  in  the  election  of  bishops  and  lodge  it 
in  the  hands  of  one  of  his  own  subjects? 

"  The  only  answer  [said  Lord  Denman]  to  this  perti- 
nent question,  if  I  understood  it  properly,  I  confess  I 
could  not  hear  without  surprise  and  regret.  As  I  caught 
it,  it  was  a  reflection,  and  a  severe  reflection,  on  that 
great  father  of  the  English  Protestant  Church — Arch- 
bishop Cranmer.  I  understood  the  solution  of  the  diffi- 
culty to  be  that  '  the  King  knew  how  obsequious  an 
Archbishop  he  had  in  Cranmer,  who  would  readily  con- 
form to  any  wish  the  Royal  mind  might  conceive.' 
Cranmer  was  not  a  blameless  man — very  far  from  it. 
Shortly  before  his  death  he  betrayed  a  lamentable  want 
of  firmness — not,  however,  greater  than  his  who  was  selected 
from  among  the  apostles  as  the  rock  on  wJiich  was  to  be 
built  the  everlasting  Church.  Yet  his  noble  bearing  when 
he  met  at  last  the  death  he  had  too  much  feared,  might 
have  been  expected  to  protect  his  memory  from  general 
reflections  like  these." 

Upon  the  solemn  mockery  of  keeping  up  the  old  form 
of  calling  on  all  opposers  to  appear  and  make  their  ob- 
jections to  the  Confirmation,  and  then  not  allowing  them 
to  appear  and  be  heard,  and  finally  accusing  them  of 

1  Mr.  Badeley. 


1848.]  DR.     HAMPJDEN'S    CASE.  189 

contumacy  for  not  appearing,  and  all  this  accompanied 
with  the  solemnity  of  prayer,  Lord  Denman  pointed  out 
that  it  was  not  more  absurd  than  the  practice,  whose 
legality  no  man  disputed,  of  calling  on  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  with  solemn  form  of  prayer,  etc.,  to  elect  a.  bishop 
whom  they  must  elect  whether  they  will  or  no,  and  who, 
as  all  the  world  knows,  is  the  nominee  of  the  Crown. 

"  When  [said  the  Chief  Justice]  I  heard  Sir  Fitzroy 
Kelly,  with  his  impressive  solemnity  of  manner,  entreat 
that  we  would  not  expose  the  Archbishop  to  the  mock- 
ery of  having  all  the  prayers  recited  for  the  mere  pur- 
pose of  going  through  a  form  and  acting  a  farce,  I  con- 
fess I  hardly  knew  how  to  meet  it.  Are  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  to  be  treated  as  nothing  ?  Do  they  proceed 
without  prayer  and  without  solemn  ceremony?  If  they 
are  required,  notwithstanding  all  this,  under  the  threat 
of  penal  consequences,  to  elect  a  particular  person  and 
none  other — the  law  which  compels  them  may  be  an  un- 
reasonable, ill-considered,  and  impious  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, that  ought  to  be  repealed  ;  but  why  should  there 
be  more  objection  on  account  of  these  mock  solemnities 
being  introduced  into  the  presence  of  the  Archbishop 
than  into  that  of  the  Dean  and  Chapter.  I  forbear,  for 
obvious  reasons,  from  entering  more  fully  into  that.  The 
whole  matter  reminds  one  of  the  Roman  Augurs,  who  were 
said  never  to  meet  one  another  without  laughing;  and,  I 
think,  that  if  these  gentleman  had  induced  us  to  issue 
this  writ  upon  considerations  of  the  incredible  scandal 
and  impropriety  of  using  a  religious  solemnity  on  such 
an  occasion,  they  would  have  had  some  reason  to  laugh 
at  our  expense." 

In  conclusion,  Lord  Denman,  after  having  stated  at 
length  all  his  reasons  (which  appear  quite  incontroverti- 
ble) for  the  opinion  deliberately  formed  and  conscien- 
tiously maintained  by  him,  viz.,  that  by  the  law  and 
practice  of  England,  ever  since  the  statute  of  25  Henry 
VIII.,  confirmation  of  the  election  of  a  bishop  by  the 
Archbishop  is  purely  a  ministerial,  never  a  judicial  act, 
expressed  his  conviction  that  in  the  due  exercise  of  his 
discretion  he  ought  to  refuse  to  grant  the  mandamus.1 

1  Where  the  Court  in  which  a  rule  is  moved  is  equally  divided  in  opinion, 
the  practice  is  that  the  rule  is  discharged. 


1 90  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1848. 

"  I  own  that  my  opinion  is  so  entirely  settled,  and  I 
must  add,  so  entirely  unchanged  by  all  I  have  heard  to- 
day, that,  feeling  the  utmost  disposition  to  do  all  that 
can  be  done  to  show  my  respect  for  my  learned  brothers 
[Patteson  and  Coleridge],  I  do  not  think  that  I  can  con- 
sent to  say,  for  my  part,  that  this  writ  ought  to  go.  I 
think  it  ought  not — I  feel  confident  that  if  it  went,  it 
would  be  good  for  nothing — that  the  return  which  would 
be  made  to  it  would  give  it  a  complete  answer.  I  am 
satisfied  that  the  only  effect  of  all  this  would  be  to  keep 
alive  the  frightful  state  of  religious,  or,  rather  let  me  say, 
theological  animosity,  which  it  is  impossible  not  to  ob- 
serve in  this  country.  There  would  be  a  delay  of  at 
least  two  years  before  the  return  to  the  writ  could  be 
argued — probably  four  more  days  would  be  consumed 
in  argument,  and  we  can  not  tell  how  much  more  when 
it  would  come  into  the  Court  of  Error.  The  bishopric 
all  that  time  would  be  vacant — perhaps  other  vacancies 
might  occur  in  other  sees,  when,  no  doubt,  the  example 
here  set  would  be  followed,  and  in  every  case  I  should 
expect,  in  the  present  excited  state  of  men's  mind,  that 
the  Archbishop  would  be  called  upon  to  summon  all 
mankind  to  hear  whether  they  had  anything  to  say 
against  the  confirmation  of  the  bishop  elect  and  open  a 
Court  that  would  probably  never  be  closed. 

"  Under  all  these  circumstances,  feeling  the  utmost  re- 
spect for  my  learned  brethren,  and  the  greatest  regret 
that  we  do  not  take  the  same  view,  I  must  own  that  I 
feel  that  some  deference  is  due  also  to  the  high  person 
[Archbishop  of  Canterbury]  who  is  named  as  the  de- 
fendant in  this  rule.  Some  deference  is  due  to  those  who 
certify  the  fitness  of  Bishop  Hampden  for  the  office  to 
which  he  is  elected.  Still,  more  deference  is  due  to  the 
peace  of  the  Church  and  the  tranquillity  of  the  State. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  we  should  be  putting  everything 
to  hazard,  and  leading  to  consequences  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  foresee,  if  we,  who  are  firmly  convinced  that 
there  is  no  such  law  as  that  upon  which  these  parties 
seek  to  act,  encouraged  the  smallest  doubt  as  to  its  ex- 
istence. Reserving  my  opinion  on  this  point,  till  I  had 
heard  all  the  observations  of  my  learned  brothers,  and 
keeping  my  mind  open  to  the  last,  and  free  to  say  that 


1848.]  DR.     HAMPDEN'S    CASE.  19  T 

this  is  a  question  which  ought  to  be  discussed,  I  must 
fairly  say,  with  all  respect  for  my  brother  Coleridge's 
admirable  argument,  that  it  has  confirmed  me  in  the 
opinion  of  the  danger  of  exposing  the  act  of  Parliament, 
and  the  most  simple  construction  of  the  plainest 
language,  and  the  most  moderate  and  universal  opinion 
on  its  effects,  to  the  speculations  of  those  who  will  bring 
their  forgotten  books  down  and  wipe  off  the  cobwebs  from 
the  Decretals  and  Canons  before  they  can  find  one  argu- 
ment for  disturbing  the  settled  practice  of  three  hundred 
years.1" 

So  the  rule  was  discharged,  the  mandamus  refused, 
and  the  confirmation  of  Dr.  Hampden's  election  stood 
as  good  and  valid  in  law. 

The  opponents,  indeed,  or  "  opposers  "  of  Dr.  Hamp- 
den  consulted  their  counsel  as  to  whether  they  could 
not  carry  the  case  further,  but  were  advised,  with 
undoubted  accuracy,  by  those  learned  gentlemen  that 
no  writ  of  error  or  other  appeal  lay  against  a  refusal 
by  the  Queen's  Bench  to  grant  a  mandamus,  which  it 
is  always  discretionary  with  that  Court  to  grant  or 
not. 

So  in  the  Law  Courts  the  matter  was  at  an  end  :  not 
quite  so  in  Parliament. 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  on  February  15,  1848,  that 
famous  champion  of  the  Church,  the  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
presented  a  petition  from  certain  clergymen  of  the  Arch- 
deaconery  of  Bucks,  praying  for  the  repeal  of  so  much 
of  the  statute  of  25  Henry  VIII.  as  rendered  Deans, 
Chapters,  and  Bishops  liable  to  the  penalties  of  a 
prcemunire  in  discharge  of  their  respective  duties  in  the 
election  and  consecration  of  bishops  in  the  Christian 
Church. 

The  Bishop,  in  the  course  of  an  able  speech,  spoke  of 
the  Act  25  of  Henry  VIII.,  which  directed  Deans  and 
Chapters  to  proceed  with  the  form  of  election,  accom- 
panied by  solemn  religious  service,  and  which  at  the 
same  time  compelled  them  to  elect  any  individual,  how- 
ever unfit  they  might  conscientiously  believe  him  to  be, 
under  the  penalties  of  -<\ pramunire,  as  a  law  of  unmixed 
tyranny. 

1  Jebb's  "  Report  of  Bishop  Hampden's  Case,"  pp.  495.  496. 


i92  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1848. 

He  expressed  a  hope  that  the  opinions  of  the  two 
learned  persons  (Patteson  and  Coleridge)  who  thought 
that  the  confirmation  by  the  Archbishop  of  the  election 
of  a  bishop  was  a  judicial  and  not  a  merely  ministerial 
act,  would  ultimately  prevail  as  the  law  of  the  land. 

If  the  construction  put  on  the  statute  of  Henry  by 
the  Chief  Justice  were  allowed  to  prevail,  it  would  make 
that  Act  the  "  Magna  Charter  of  Tyranny." 

Lord  Denman  said  that, 

"  It  did  not  appear  a  very  proper  or  convenient  course 
for  a  judge  to  enter  in  discussion  in  that  place  respect- 
ing his  own  administration  of  the  laws  in  a  Court  of  Jus- 
tice. He  could  only  say  of  this  case  that  on  no  occasion 
to  his  recollection  had  he  devoted  so  much  time,  or 
bestowed  so  much  inquiry,  on  any  subject  that  had 
come  before  him,  nor  did  he  recollect  any  subject  that 
had  caused  him  greater  anxiety.  So  that  if  he  had 
erred  in  any  way,  it  was  not  without  the  most  careful 
endeavor  to  prevent  it,  and  the  most  diligent  search 
after  the  truth.  He  would  add  that  never,  on  any  occa- 
sion, had  he  risen  from  an  inquiry  with  a  more  perfect 
conviction  that  he  had  had  the  good  fortune  to  arrive 
at  the  truth. 

"  He  felt  the  deep  responsibility  that  rested  on  him 
when  he  came  to  that  conclusion,  in  opposition  to 
opinions  which  he  so  justly  respected  ;  but,  having  done 
so,  he,  as  a  judge,  was  not  entitled  to  withhold  it.  How- 
ever great  the  respect  he  felt  for  his  learned  brethren, 
and  notwithstanding  the  pain  with  which,  on  every 
occasion,  one  judge  differed  from  another  on  questions  of 
great  interest  and  importance — still  that  judge  must  pro- 
nounce the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience,  and  give  full 
effect  to  his  own  opinion." 

He  then  gave,  in  the  following  short  and  clear  terms, 
the  true  ground  for  refusing  the  mandamus,  viz.  that  it 
would  make  the  appointment  of  bishops  rest,  not  with 
the  Crown,  as  the  law  requires,  but  with  the  Arch- 
bishop, and  this  on  the  ground  of  a  mere  form,  which 
had  been  suffered  to  linger  on  long  after  the  state  of 
things  which  had  called  it  into  existence  had  passed 
away : 

"  We  were  asked  to  grant  the  madamus  on  this  specific 


1848.]  DR.     H AMP  DEN'S     CASE.  193 

ground — that,  according  to  the  ancient  practice,  the  ap- 
pearance of  objectors  having  been  challenged,  before 
confirmation,  the  Archbishop  was  bound  to  hear  any 
objectors  whatever  prefer  any  objections  whatever.  In 
other  ceremonies  such  forms  had  still  kept  their  place, 
but  merely  as  a  matter  of  form.  But  on  the  late  occasion 
the  form  was  song/it  to  be  coxverted  into  a  substantive 
practice,  powerful  enough  to  set  aside  the  appointment  of  a 
bishop  by  the  Crown.  For,  as  his  noble  and  learned  friend 
[Lord  Lyndhurst]  had  truly  observed,  the  power  of  the 
appointment  could  not,  in  fact,  be  in  the  Crown  if  the 
Archbishop  had  a  power,  before  confirmation,  to  call 
upon  all  opposers  to  come  forward,  to  hear  their  ob- 
jections, and,  should  his  opinion  be  in  favor  of  them,  to 
refuse  the  confirmation  and  consecration  of  the  person 
nominated  by  the  Crown. 

"  The  right  rev.  prelate  had  called  his  [Lord  Denman's] 
learned  brethren  on  the  Bench  who  had  differed  from 
him,  '  the  friends  of  the  liberty  of  the  Church.'  In  his 
opinion  no  one  who  had  an  opportunity  of  considering 
the  subject  could  doubt  that  his  learned  brother,  Mr. 
Justice  Erie,  and  himself  had  conferred  a  real  benefit  on 
the  Church  by  putting  a  stop  to  the  issue  of  this  writ  of 
mandamus." 

Viewing  the  petition  presented  by  the  Bishop  of 
Exeter  as  merely  seeking  to  put  an  end  to  the  penalties 
of  prcemunire  as  affecting  certain  of  the  clergy,  Lord 
Denman  expressed  it  as  his  opinion  that  in  the  case  of 
confirmation  the  penalty  of  prcemunire  was  wholly  unnec- 
essary, the  Archbishop  being  in  his  judgment  impera- 
tively enjoined  to  confirm  the  election  of  a  bishop. 
"  Indeed,"  he  added,  "  the  penalty  of  prcBmunire  is  in  its 
own  nature  objettionable,  and  unworthy  of  a  civilized 
country.  No  man  ought,  for  any  offense,  to  be  placed 
out  of  the  protection  of  the  law,  and  he  should  gladly 
see  the  title  of  prcemunire  expunged  from  our  code." 

Denman  then  proceed,  with  that  grave  and  courteous 
irony  of  which,  though  he  rarely  employed  it,  he  was  a 
master,  to  suggest  to  the  right  rev.  prelate  a  much  more 
effectual  remedy  in  the  case  than  the  mere  abolition  of 
Prcemunire  on  failure  to  elect  or  to  confirm,  and  that  was 
"  the  re-enactment  of  the  statute  of  Edward  VI.,  con- 
n. — n 


i94  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1848, 

ferring  on  the  Crown  the  power,  which  with  regard   to 
Irish   bishops  it  still  enjoys,  of  the  direct  appointment  of 
Bishops. 

11  He  thought  an  amendment  of  the  25  Henry  VIII., 
by  substituting  this  simple  process  for  the  cumbrous 
machinery  of  Congt  a"  E  lire  and  Letters  Missive  would  be 
a  great  improvement  of  the  law,  and  would  avoid  the 
scandal  and  similar  questions  in  Westminster  Hall  in 
future.  To  this  extent  he  should  be  happy  to  lend  his 
aid  to  the  right  rev.  prelate  in  his  endeavors  after  a 
reform  of  the  law." 

Solvuntur  risu  tabula; ;  the  redoubtable  Phillpotts  had 
met  his  match  at  his  own  weapons.1 

A  few  days  after  this  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to- 
his  friend  and  son-in-law,  Hodgson,  who  had,  it  seems, 
written  to  the  Chief  Justice  to  express  his  cordial  ap- 
provement of  the  judgment  in  Hampden's  case  ;  to  con- 
gratulate him  on  Captain  Denman's  escape,  owing  to  the 
decision  in  Buron  v.  Denman,  from  the  clutches  of  the 
slave-owner;  and  to  communicate  his  own  disappoint- 
ment in  not  having  been  nominated  to  the  recently 
vacant  see  of  Chester — a  preferment  for  which,  perhaps,, 
his  exertions  for  the  abolition  of  Montem  had  not  recom- 
mended him  in  high  quarters  : 

"  Guildhall :  February  19,  1848. 

"  My  dear  Hodgson, — Your  agreeable  and  kind  letter 
only  disappointed  me  in  not  announcing  that  Her  Ma- 
jesty required  your  services  at  Chester.  Well,  we  shall 
keep  you  nearer,  and  see  you  oftener.  Many  thanks  for 
your  remembrance  of  my  birthday  [2ist  February], 
which  will,  I  hope,  prove  auspicious  for  the  commence- 
ment of  your  sanitary  visit  to  Brighton.  I  am  very 
happy  that  you  approve  of  my  doings  in  the  Hampden 
case,  for  it  has  always  been  one  of  the  most  painful  acts- 
of  my  judicial  life  to  differ  with  my  judicial  brethern. 
But  the  more  I  think  of  it  the  more  I  am  satisfied  of  the 
propriety  of  our  judgment,  on  the  law  in  the  first  place, 
and  secondly,  in  the  exercise  of  our  discretion  in  dis- 
charging the  rule.  Surely  the  law  ought  to  be  altered, 

1  The  debate,  which  is  interesting,  is  well  reported  in  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb... 
third  series,  vol.  xcvi.  House  of  Lords,  February  15,  1848.  Lord  Den- 
man's speech  extends  from  pp.  644-647. 


1848.]  DR.     HAMPDEN'S    CASE.  195 

but  whether  any  control  should  be  imposed  on  the 
Crown,  after  appointing,  seems  very  doubtful.  The  Crown, 
certainly,  is  not  infallible;  but  who  is  ?  I  shudder  at  the 
very  idea  of  trials  for  heresy,  and  a  smell  of  burning 
comes  into  my  nose.  I  am  wholly  ignorant  of  Hamp- 
den's  merits  or  demerits  ;  the  best  thing  arising  from 
the  imprudence  of  appointing  him  is  the  name  given  to 
our  friend,  your  diocesan  [the  celebrated  prelate,  then 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  late  of  Winchester]  the  Re-tractarian? 

"  Joe's  case  has,  indeed,  come  to  a  triumphant  end  for 
him.  I  hope  a  final  one." 

On  February  22,  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  in  moving  for 
a  return  of  the  number  of  slave  vessels  captured  by  Her 
Majesty's  cruisers  during  the  years  1845,  1846,  and  1847, 
made  an  able  and  eloquent  speech,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  spoke,  with  strong  reprobation,  of  a  feeling 
that  seemed  to  be  growing  up  in  favor  of  recalling  the 
squadron,  from  a  conviction  that,  so  far  from  diminishing, 
it  increased  the  loss  of  life  and  other  horrors  of  the  Mid- 
dle Passage.2 

Lord  Denman  denied  that  those  preventive  means 
had  increased  the  sufferings  of  the  negroes  to  anything 
like  the  extent  supposed.  He  said  that 

"The  torture  and  misery  had  always  been  extreme. 
He  was  old  enough  to  remember  when  a  bill  was  brought 
into  the  House  of  Commons,  limiting  the  number  of 
slaves  that  should  be  shipped  on  board  vessels  of  a  cer- 
tain size  and  tonnage,  and  that  bill  was  vigorously  resisted. 
The  very  discussion  by  Parliament  whether  &  zvr  etched  cap- 
tive was  to  have  an  inch  more  or  less  to  lie  down  in,  was 
treated  as  an  interference  with  the  rights  of  private  prop- 
erty, and  an  invasion  of  the  principles  of  Free  Trade. 

"Public  opinion  on  this  subject  appeared  to  him  to 
have  undergone  a  lamentable  and  disgraceful  change. 
The  treatment  of  the  efforts  of  our  squadron  as  a  mere 
failure  was  purely  absurd.  In  fact,  some  of  those  who 
affected  to  lament  its  wants  of  success  were  only  annoyed 
that  it  had  succeeded  too  well.  They  descried  the  em- 

1  From  his  having  first  joined  with  those  who  condemned  Ilampden,  and 
afterwards,  having,  in  the  interim,  carefully  read  his  books,  retracted  his 
former  judgment,  declaring  he  could  find  no  heretical  pravitv  in  them. 

•  Hansard,  Pad.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xcvi.  p.  1037. 


1 96  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1848. 

ployment  of  our  cruisers  because  it  had  disappointed  the 
schemes  of  the  slave-traders  in  Cuba  and  Brazil,  and  their 
allies  in  other  countries." 

In  the  course  of  this  speech  Denman  reiterated  with 
great  emphasis  his  often  avowed  opinion  that  the  Slave 
Trade  ought  to  be  regarded  and  dealt  with  as  being  by 
the  law  of  nations  ipso  facto  piracy,  and  he  said  that  in 
his  opinion  it  was  a  great  misfortune  that  Mr.  Canning 
in  1823  did  not  accept  the  offer  then  made  by  the 
United  States  so  to  declare  it.  "  Had  that  proposal 
been  accepted,"  said  Denman,  "  the  Slave  Trade,  I 
believe,  would  not  now  exist." 

"  His  principal  reason,"  he  said,  "  for  having  thus  re- 
stated on  the  present  occasion  his  decided  opinion  on 
the  nature  and  character  of  slave-trading,  was  because 
he  had  recently  seen  the  claim  of  an  owner  of  human 
beings,  made  slaves  for  the  purpose  of  trade,  recognized 
for  the  first  time  in  an  English  Court  of  Justice."1 

And  now  the  French  Revolution  of  February  24  came, 
"  perplexing  kings  with  fear  of  change,"  and  profoundly 
altering  in  its  result  the  destinies  of  Europe.  Denman, 
with  his  brave  and  cheerful  temperament,  remained  firm 
and  unmoved,  sharing  neither  the  exaggerated  hopes 
nor  the  exaggerated  terrors  of  the  times. 

He  admired  as  much  as  any  one  the  magnificent 
demonstration  by  which,  on  the  memorable  eighth  of 
April,  the  higher  and  middle  classes  of  London  proved 
their  attachment  to  the  cause  of  freedom  with  order  ; 
but  he  had  also  the  moral  courage  to  speak  of  himself  in 
the  House  of  Lords  "  as  an  old  friend  and  well-wisher  " 
to  those  among  the  working  classes  who  were  seeking 
for  still  further  measures  of  political  reform ;  while, 
though  he  did  not  oppose,  he  by  no  means  gave  his 
unqualified  approbation  to  the  Bill  introduced  by  Gov- 
ernment (on  the  ground  of  the  disturbed  state  of  the 
times,  and  the  numbers  of  foreign  revolutionaries  alleged 
to  be  flocking  into  England),  for  the  Removal  of  Aliens. 
When  this  last  mentioned  bill  was,  on  April  13,  intro- 
duced by  Lord  Lansdowne  into  the  Upper  House,  Lord 
Denman  said  that, 

1  In  allusion  to  Buron  v.  Denman.  Lord  Denman's  speech  on  this  occa- 
sion, by  no  means  one  of  his  best,  will  be  found  in  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb., 
third  seiies,  vol.  xcvi.  pp.  1051-1055. 


1848.]  REVOLUTION    OF     1848. 


197 


"He  could  not  see  a  bill  of  this  kind  introduced  with- 
out expressing  his  very  great  regret  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  give  Government  a  power  of  such  enor- 
mous extent — a  Bill  which  would  enable  any  individual 
to  ruin  his  enemy  by  secret  information  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  if  he  should  feel  bound  to  act  on  the  informa- 
tion conveyed  to  him. 

"  In  former  days,  when  the  battle  was  fought  against 
the  Alien  Bill  year  after  year  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
it  was  his  pride  to  have  been  connected  with  those  who 
contended  against  it.'  When,  in  1826,  that  Act  was 
finally  repealed,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  on  whose  motion  it 
was  abrogated,  was  received  by  those  who  were  gener- 
ally opposed  to  him,  with  such  shouts  of  applause  as 
would  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  him."1 

When,  on  April  19,  Lord  Cottenham  introduced  to  the 
House  the  "  Crown  and  Government  Security  Bill,"  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  having  made  some  strong  observa- 
tions "  on  the  growing  contempt  of  the  people  for  the 
law,  as  shown  by  the  distracted  state  of  the  country," 
Lord  Denman,  adverting  to  those  observations,  said  : 

"That  they  might  be  correct  as  applicable  to  those 
who  had  made  the  present  Bill  necessary,  but  we  would 
suggest  that  it  was  hardly  just  to  the  People  of  England 
— who  had  so  recently  taken  into  their  own  hands  the 
vindication  of  their  safety — to  assert  that  there  was  in 
the  great  body  of  that  England  a  contempt  for  the  law. 

"  He  thought,  on  the  contrary,  that  when  they  saw 
that  recent  exhibition  of  peaceful  men  turning  off  from 
the  ordinary  and  needful  occupations  of  life  to  expose 
themselves  to  possible  danger  and  certain  inconvenience 
— he  thought  there  was  brought  before  them  the  most 
gratifying  proof  of  attachment  to  the  law,  arising  from 
this,  that  they  knew  by  long  experience  the  benefits  of 
the  protection  to  be  derived  from  it. 

"  I  am  sure  [said  Lord  Denman]  I  can  never  speak 
without  feelings  of  the  utmost  admiration  and  gratitude, 
in  which  all  mankind  concur,  of  the  conduct  of  the 
Noble  Duke — his  recent  conduct  in  these  troubles,  and 
the  whole  tenor  of  his  life ;  but  I  feel  that  I  should  be 
wanting,  in  some  degree,  in  what  is  due  to  the  real  char- 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xcviii.  p.  278. 


198  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1848. 

actcr  of  the  English  people  if  I  allowed  that  which 
looked  like  a  general  imputation  '  of  a  growing  contempt 
for  the  law  '  to  pass  without  comment." 

The  Duke  explained  that  he  had  never  meant  to  im- 
pute a  growing  contempt  for  law  to  the  English  people 
generally,  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  nobody  could  ad- 
mire more  than  he  did  the  general  conduct  of  the  people 
on  occasion  of  the  great  demonstration  of  April  8. 

In  the  course  of  this  summer,  Denman  received  from 
the  United  States  the  following  letter  from  Mr.  William 
Kent,  son  of  the  venerable  ex-Chancellor,  who  had  re- 
cently died,  the  object  of  universal  respect  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic,  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-three.  Mr. 
William  Kent  had  been  in  England  three  years  pre- 
viously, and  been  received,  as  his  father's  son  was  sure  to 
be,  with  cordial  hospitality  by  the  English  Chief  Justice. 

"  New  York,  June  6,  1848. 

"  My  Lord, — I  venture  to  request  your  acceptance  of 
a  copy  of  a  discourse  recently  delivered  before  the  Judi- 
ciary and  Bar  of  the  State  of  Norfolk,  on  the  life  and 
character  of  my  father,  the  late  Chancellor  Kent. 

"  It  was  with  deeply  gratified  feeling  that  my  father 
received  the  flattering  expression  of  your  opinion  of  his 
works  and  judicial  character  which  ocasionally  crossed 
the  Atlantic. 

"  On  my  return  to  America  from  England,  I  had  the 
happiness  of  finding  him,  though  83  years  old,  still  vigor- 
ous in  mind  and  body;  and  it  was  an  unmingled  plea- 
sure to  answer  his  questions  about  England,  and  par- 
ticularly about  Westminster  Hall,  the  subject  of  his 
meditation  and  study  during  so  long  a  period  of  his  life. 

'' It  was  his  intention,  though,  I  believe,  from  his  un- 
affected modesty  he  never  carried  his  intention  into 
effect,  to  thank  you,  by  letter,  for  the  kindness  with 
which  you  have  so  often  spoken  of  him,  and  for  the 
courtesy  shown  to  his  son  during  his  visit  in  England  in 
1845. 
"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  the  most  profound  respect. 

"  Your  Lordship's 

"Most  obedient  and  most  humble  servant, 

"  WILLIAM  KENT. 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  xcviii.  p.  503. 


1848.]    HUTTS    COMMITTEE.— SQUADRON.      199 

As  the  summer  proceeded  it  became  clear  from  current 
conversation,  occasional  correspondence,  and  the  opinions 
of  the  Press,  that  the  evidence  taken  before  Hutt's  Com- 
mittee/ then  recently  published,  and  as  yet  unanswered, 
was  producing  a  very  general  and  strong  feeling  in  a 
great  portion  of  the  public  against  the  policy  of  keeping 
up  the  West  African  Squadron. 

The  following  letters  from  the  Chief  Justice  (who  pre- 
sided this  summer  on  the  Midland  Circuit)  to  his  son, 
Captain  Denman,  will  show  the  eager  avidity  with  which 
he  followed  the  evidence,  and  the  feverish  anxiety  with 
which  he  contemplated  the  possible  result  of  the 
inquiry : 

"Leicester:  July  29,  1848. 

"  My  dearest  Joseph, — I  have  devoured  Captain  Mat- 
son's  pamphlet,  and  not  knowing  how  far  h\s  professional 
views  may  be  correct  or  bond  fide,  feel  rather  pleased 
with  it  than  otherwise.  Do  you  know  him  ?  I  should 
be  inclined  to  make  his  acquaintance,  and  if  that  be  not 
feasible,  should  be  disposed  to  give  him  a  short  letter  by 
the  Press.  I  would  accept  all  his  concurrence,  lament 
any  difference,  show  (if  it  can  be  done  clearly  and  short- 
ly) that  he  has  misconceived  the  argument  or  committed 
some  error,  but  declare  openness  to  conviction  and  a 
wish  to  conciliate  him  on  the  great  object  common  to 
both,  which  seems  about  to  be  arrested  from  you  by 

the  astuteness  of  Cliffe,a  the  stupidity  of  Mr.  M (who 

is  he?),  and  the  absurd  gullibility  of  Hutt's  committee. 
If  the  subject  takes  you,  and  can  be  touched  with  a 
light  hand,  it  will  afford  us  an  opportunity  of  exposing 
the  evidence  of  which  so  much  advantage  is  taken, 
and  the  enormous  folly  of  the  reaction  in  public 
opinion. 

1  So  called  from  Mr.  (now  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  Benjamin)  Hutt — its 
chairman.  It  was  a  committee  appointed  by  the  House  of  Commons,  in 
1847,  to  consider  "  of  providing  for  the  best  means  to  be  adopted  for  the 
final  extinction  of  the  Slave  Trade."  The  chairman,  Mr.  Hutt,  before  the 
appointment  of  the  committee,  had  shown  what  his  own  conviction  was,  by 
declaring  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that,  if  asked  how  he  would  deal  with 
the  Slave  Trade,  he  would  reply,  without  doubt  or  reservation,  "  Leave  the 
Slave  Trade  to  itself." 

1  Dr.  Cliffe — the  ablest  witness  examined  before  Hutt's  committee  on 
the  Anti-Squadron  and  Pro-Slave  Trade  side:  he  admitted  himself  to  be  a 
slave-owner. 


200  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1848. 

"  The  cause  has  fallen  so  low  that  I  hardly  see  a  hope 
of  remedy  except  in  its  falling  still  lower.  When  at  zero 
I  do  think  that  if  a  temperate  and  effective  speech  could 
be  made,  quietly  pointing  out  the  momentary  triumph  of 
falsehood  in  fact,  and  fallacy  in  doctrine,  and  warning 
them  that  the  Slave  Trade  is  on  the  eve  of  a  revival  ten 
times  more  extensive  than  ever,  under  England's 
patronage  and  for  her  sordid  benefit, — it  might  be  the 
foundation  of  good,  or  at  least  stop  the  downward  pro- 
gress from  bad  to  worse." 

In  a  few  days  he  writes  again  on  the  same  subject : 

"  Coventry  :  August  2,  1848. 

"  My  dearest  Joe, — I  wish  I  could  express  half  the 
pleasure  it  gives  me  to  find  myself  your  fellow-laborer  in 
this  good  cause,  in  which  great  service  has  already  been 
done  if  the  squadron  escapes  the  Committee. 

"  I  will  hope  you  will  find  Aberdeen  or  Brougham  ac- 
cessible to  the  arguments  about  treaties ;  but  my  points 
are  all  on  the  principle.  If  Brougham  can  be  persuaded 
to  take  up  Senhor  Cliffe^  the  exhibition  will  be  truly 
grand.  I  think  I  can  do  something  with  him. 

"  The  business  of  the  circuit,  very  light  hitherto,  begins 
to  be  rather  heavy  at  the  last  two  places,  but  I  have  no 
fear  of  ending  it  by  Saturday  night.  Margaret's  great 
affair  comes  off  next  week,1  but  even  that  should  not 
prevent  me  from  coming  to  town  when  necessary.  When 
that  may  be  I  do  not  yet  collect  from  the  papers.  They 
surely  can  not  mean  to  whip  it  through  the  Lords  as  in 

1846.  Who  and  what  is  Captain  M ?  A  gentleman 

who  sets  out  on  an  adventure  to  suppress  the  slave  trade 
and  begins  his  enterprise  by  discovering  that  it  never 
can  be  successful,  fortifying  that  opinion  by  scraps  from 
all  quarters,  which  he  carefully  copies  in  his  common- 
place book.  One  thing  I  will  readily  concede  to  him, 
that  for  him,  or  such  as  him,  to  suppress  it  is  quite  as 
impossible  as  he  thinks  it.  Perhaps  his  practice  may 
have  contradicted  his  theory,  and  doing  a  noble  deed,  in 
nature's  spite,  his  acts  may  have  refuted  his  opinion.  If, 
on  the  contrary,  he  has  done  nothing,  that  result  may 

1  Second  marriage  of  his  fourth  daughter,  Margaret,  with  Edward  Crop- 
per, Esq.,  which  took  place  in  August,  1848 ;  her  first  husband,  Mr. 
Macaulay,  had  died  in  1846. 


1848.]    HUTTS    COMMITTEE.— SQUADRON.      201 

account  for  his  opinion.  It  is  a  strange  boast  for  a 
British  naval  officer,  really  bent  on  the  service  with  which 
he  is  intrusted,  to  find  his  evidence  in  all  respects  per- 
fectly conformable  to  that  of  the  former  slave-trader  and 
present  slave-owner  [Dr.  Cliffe],  equally  bent  on  defeat- 
ing that  service.  The  impudence  of  the  man  who  imputes 
the  horrors  of  which  he  with  his  fellow  slave-owners  are 
the  authors,  to  the  attempts  of  the  squadron  to  prevent 
them  is  only  unequaled  by  the  perverted  ingenuity  of 
him  who  abounds  in  refined  speculations  on  remote  con- 
sequences, overlooking  the  obvious  evils  which  stare  him 
in  the  face  and  defy  him." 

Denman  resolved  to  make  a  supreme  effort  in  the 
House  of  Lords  for  the  preservation  of  the  squadron, 
which  he  regarded  as  the  sole  effectual  means  for  the 
extinction  of  the  Slave  Trade.  On  returning  from  cir- 
cuit, he  gave  notice  of  motion  for  August  22,  for  "  an 
address  to  the  Crown  on  the  subject  of  the  Slave  Trade," 
and  having  in  the  interim  fully  charged  his  mind  with 
all  the  mass  of  evidence,  oral  and  documentary,  which 
at  all  bore  on  the  subject,  he,  on  the  day  appointed, 
appeared  in  his  place,  and  made  the  ablest  and  most 
powerful  speech  he  ever  delivered  in  either  House  of 
Parliament. 

The  following  interesting  letter,  written  to  Lady  Den- 
man from  the  House  shortly  before  his  great  effort  was 
to  be  made,  shows  clearly  the  high-wrought  though 
carefully  repressed  excitement  under  which  at  the 
moment  he  was  laboring  : 

"  House  of  Lords  :   August  22,  1848. 
"  Half-past  two,  P.  M. 

"  Dearest  Love, — I  write  to  you  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  my  mind  in  a  composed  state,  having  filled  it 
as  full  as  it  can  hold  of  interesting  matter.  I  hope  to 
carry  it  through  its  difficult  task  with  as  much  steadiness 
as  I  raised  the  last  bumper  to  your  health.  My  journey 
in  the  coup6  was  solitary,  but  not  tedious,  for  I  studied 
my  case  thoroughly  and  found  much  valuable  aid  in  the 
Blue  Books. 

"After  breakfast,  yesterday,  I  went  to  Brougham's,  and 
with  him  to  the  House,  and  we  concerted  and  notified 
the  measures  to  be  taken.  I  then  went  with  him  to  Miss 


202  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1848. 

BurdettV  to  dinner,  and  met  and  sat  next  to  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  who  was  remarkably  agreeable  and  good- 
natured.  There  was  also  the  Indian  Sir  Charles  Napier 
(conqueror  of  Scinde)  there,  a  most  agreeable  and  ready 
man.  Miss  Burdett  asked  much  after  you.  This  morn- 
ing I  have  been  again  with  Brougham  and  some  know- 
ing people,  and  now  am  in  the  Library  to  look  at  all 
the  books  and  papers  that  can  throw  light  on  my 
subject. 

"  I  strongly  feel  the  vast  responsibility  of  my  task, 
and  what  immense  consequences  may  flow  from  its  being 
well  or  ill  performed.  But  what  can  I  rest  upon  with  a 
better  chance  of  securing  the  needed  equanimity,  than 
that  kind  and  affectionate  bosom  which  beats  so  warmly 
for  everything  that  is  good  ?  All  the  qualities  worth 
having  which  I  can  flatter  myself  with  possessing,  are 
preserved  by  my  being  the  husband  of  such  a  wife,  and 
the  father  of  such  children.  God  bless  you. 

"  Your  ever  affectionate  and  faithful  husband." 
The  following  brief  extracts  can,  of  course,  give  only  a 
very  inadequate   notion,   though  it  is  hoped  they  may 
give  some  notion,  of  the  merits  of  this  masterly  speech  : 
He  began  by  saying, 

"  That  he  must  ask  their  lordships  to  bear  in  mind  this 
proposition  :  that  the  slave  trade  was  one  of  the  worst 
of  human  crimes;  the  most  daring  violation  of  the  laws 
of  God  and  man,  prompted  by  the  basest  motives,  pro- 
ductive of  the  greatest  amount  of  suffering,  and  that  it 
more  effectually  prevented  the  progress  in  civilization 
and  happiness  of  a  very  large  portion  of  the  human 
race. 

"  The  House  of  Commons,  in  full  accordance  with  this 
principle,  had  recently  appointed  a  committee  '  to  con- 
sider the  best  means  of  providing  for  the  extinction  of 
the  Slave  Trade.' 

"  The  gentleman  who  moved  the  appointment  of  that 
committee,  and  afterward  became  its  chairman  (Mr. 
Hutt),  had  unfortunately  formed  a  preconceived  opinion 
on  one  of  the  most  important  points  to  which  its  in- 
quiries could  be  directed.  He  had  said,  if  asked  '  What 
are  we  to  do  with  the  Slave  Trade?'  he  would  say, 

1  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts. 


1848.]  SLAVE     TRADE— SPEECHES.  203 

without  reserve,  'Leave  the  Trade  to  itself  —  in 
other  words,  he  assumed,  before  entering  on  his  function 
of  inquiry,  that  the  squadron  ought  to  be  removed  from  the 
coast  of  Africa. 

"  Two  propositions  have  been  put  forward  as  de- 
cidedly conclusive  against  the  continued  maintenance  of 
our  squadron  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  One  of  these  is 
that  the  means  employed  for  the  extinction  of  the  traffic 
have  proved  ineffectual;  the  other  is,  that  our  attempts 
to  put  it  down  have  done  more  harm  than  good,  and 
have  had  the  effect  of  greatly  aggravating  the  horrors  of 
the  trade." 

Denman  then  proceeded  to  the  disproof  of  both  these 
propositions. 

As  to  the  first,  he  proved  (from  the  evidence  taken  be- 
fore Huffs  Committee]  that  the  vile  traffic  had  been  sup- 
pressed in  the  river  Quorra,  in  the  Bonny,  and  also  in 
the  Gambia  ;  that  instead  of  the  12,000  negroes  formerly 
exported  every  year  to  Cuba,  the  number  had  dwindled 
down  to  1,000  in  the  year  1845  !  that  the  exportation  to 
Brazil,  also,  was  being  materially  and  progressively  re- 
duced. 

"  But  at  the  very  lowest  point  of  its  depression  [he 
said]  an  unfortunate  circumstance  had  contributed  again 
to  increase  the  traffic.  The  opinion  of  the  law  officers 
of  the  Crown  had  been  somewhat  unguardedly  expressed 
as  to  the  measures  taken  in  destroying  the  barracoons; 
the  Foreign  Office1  had  communicated  those  opinions 
to  the  Admiralty,  the  slave-holders  had  got  possession 
of  the  letter,  and  had  immediately  dispatched  it  to  the 
coast. 

"  A  report  was  circulated  in  Africa  that  a  revolution 
had  taken  place  in  England,  that  Lord  Palmerston  had 
been  overthrown,  and  that  the  new  Government  intended 
to  revive  the  Slave  Trade. 

"  It  had  been  admitted  [said  Lord  Denman]  in  the 
evidence,  that  in  1843  the  Slave  Trade  was  considered  a 
losing  trade  in  Brazil,  and  the  evidence  of  Dr.  Cliffe,* 

1  In  Lord  Aberdeen's  letter  of  May  20,  1842,  already  cited  in  this  volume, 
chap,  xxviii.  p.  96. 

8  Senhor  Jos6  Cliffe,  M.  D.,  born  in  the  United  States,  domiciled  in 
Brazil. 


204  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1848. 

a  good  authority  on  the  subject,  showed  that  it  was 
abandoned  by  many  persons  in  despair,  because  they 
thought  the  Government  of  England  was  sincere  in  the  reso- 
lution to  put  it  doivn ;  but  when  they  saw  reason  to 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  English  Government,  then  it 
was  that  the  Slave  Trade  revived  with  accumulated 
vigor. 

On  the  second  point — viz.,  that  the  squadron  had 
made  bad  worse — Denman  produced  a  prodigious  im- 
pression on  the  House  and  the  country  by  the  mode  in 
which  he  pointed  out  that  the  proof  before  the  commit- 
tee of  the  squadron's  having  increased  the  horrors  of  the 
Slave  Trade  rested  mainly  on  the  evidence  of  Dr.  Cliffe, 
who  himself  stated  that  he  was  still  a  slave  owner,  and 
and  even  admitted  further  that  he  had  once  been  a  slave 
trader. 

"The  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  [he  said] 
had  had  before  them  a  person  who  acknowledged  him- 
self to  have  been  a  slave  trader,  and  this  person  the 
Committee  had  consulted  about  the  best  means  of 
putting  down  the  slave  trade !  Why,  the  bare  idea  of 
asking  a  former  slave  trader,  with  reference  to  the  means 
employed  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  seemed 
to  be  one  of  the  most  preposterous  he  ever  heard  of. 
What !  [exclaimed  Denman,  amid  the  general  laughter 
of  the  House]  consult  the  wolf  about  the  best  manner  of 
preserving  the  sheep  !  The  answer,  of  course,  would  be, 
^Remove  tlie  dogs!' ' 

Not  less  effective  were  his  comments  on  the  evidence 
of  the  few  British  officers  who,  before  the  Committee, 
had  stated  themselves  to  be  opposed  to  the  keeping  up 
of  the  squadron. 

"  He  was  aware  that  some  of  the  officers  employed  on 
that  station  had  expressed  an  opinion  unfavorable  to  the 
continuance  of  the  squadron,  and  he  believed  that  with 
many  the  service  was  unpopular. 

"  He  might  refer  to  the  evidence   of  Captain   M , 

whom  he  knew  to  be  a  gallant  officer — -a  candid  and 
honorable  man — but  a  gentleman  who  went  out  to  sup- 
press the  slave  trade  with  the  conviction  that  the  means 
used  would  not  be  sufficient  for  the  purpose  ;  who  set 
about  an  arduous  task,  requiring  all  the  energies  of  hope,  half 


1848.1  SLAVE     TRADE— SPEECHES.  205 

disqualified  by  despair.  This  gentleman  had  actually 
read  to  the  committee  a  passage  from  his  memorandum 
book,  copied  into  it  by  himself  before  he  left  England, 
embodying  that  sentiment.  Surely  it  may  be  suggested 
without  any  disrespect  either  to  the  Admiralty  or  to  the 
officer,  that  men  entertaining  such  an  opinion  should  not 
be  selected  for  the  service."  ' 

The  effect  produced  by  this  vigorous  and  admirable 
speech  was  remarkable  ;  it  at  once  turned  the  wavering 
balance  of  public  opinion,  and  mainly  contributed  to 
avert  the  sacrifice  of  the  squadron. 

It  was  followed  up  by  another  speech  on  August  28, 
on  the  same  subject,  in  which  Denman  was  particularly 
happy  in  exposing  the  charge  of  calumny  made  against 
him  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  of  August  24 :2 

"  Calumny  [said  Lord  Denman]  is  a  strong  word,  but 
I  do  not  complain  of  it,  for  I  perceive  the  sense  in  which 
it  is  used  by  the  writer.  The  calumny  is  not  that  I 
stated  anything  untruly,  but  that  I  made  strong  obser- 
vations on  the  evidence  of  a  person  who  stated  himself 
to  have  been  once  a  slave  trader.  If  I  had  incorrectly 
charged  Dr.  Cliffe  with  being  a  slave  trader,  I  should 
plead  guilty  to  uttering  the  worst  of  calumnies;  but 
when  he  himself  confesses  that  he  has  been  a  slave 
trader,  the  character  affixed  to  that  crime  is  not  affixed 
by  me,  but  by  the  law.  The  law  of  England  proclaims 
him,  as  long  as  and  inasmuch  as  he  was  a  slave 
trader,  to  have  been  a  pirate,  a  robber,  and  a  felon.  So 
does  the  law  of  America,  where  he  was  born.  So  do 
the  public  acts  of  the  Brazilian  empire,  where  he  was 
domiciled." 

These  speeches  greatly  tended  to  increase  the  reputa- 
tion of  Denman  as  an  orator,  a  matter  about  which  he 
was  comparatively  careless  ;  but  they  accomplished  an- 
other purpose  about  which  he  hard  been  passionately 
anxious,  and  which  it  was  the  dearest  object  of  his  heart 
to  achieve — they  saved  the  Squadron. 

Not  satisfied  with  his  exertions  in  Parliament  alone, 

1  This  speech  is  reported  in  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  ci.  pp. 
365-37L 

*  This  charge  of  calumny  was  founded  on  many  very  strong  observations 
by  Denman  on  Dr.  Cliffe's  evidence,  which  have  been  omitted  in  the  brief 
resume  of  his  speech  in  the  text. 


206 


LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN. 


Denman,  before  this  laborious  year  came  to  a  close, 
endeavoring  to  act  on  public  feeling  through  the  press, 
published  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  A  letter  from  Lord 
Denman  to  Lord  Brougham  on  the  Final  Extinction  of 
the  Slave  Trade."  This  publication  necessarily  goes 
over  the  same  ground  as  his  speeches,  and  presents 
nothing  specially  calling  for  notice  here,  except,  perhaps, 
the  following  passage,  which  explains  and  justifies  the 
vehemence  with  which  on  this  question  he  could  not 
help  expressing  himself' 

"  To  form  a  sound  judgment  on  these  weighty  matters 
I  have  studied  to  divest  my  mind  of  every  bias.  But  if 
any  one  expects  the  contemplation  of  them  to  awaken 
no  emotion  which  may  find  a  vent  in  some  vehemence 
of  language,  I  think  he  requires  correct  reasoning 
from  an  understanding  that  must  have  lost  the  best 
security  for  discerning  truth,  the  moral  perception  of 
right  and  wrong,  and  a  sense  of  the  value  of  justice  and 
humanity. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

WESTERN    SPRING    CIRCUIT    OF    1849 — THE   TWO   FIRST 
ATTACKS   OF   PARALYSIS — RESIGNATION. 

A.  D.  1849-1850.     JET.  70-71. 

IN  the  Spring  Assizes  of  1849,  Denman  went  the 
Western  Circuit  with  Sir  Edward  Vaughan  Wil- 
liams, who  had  been  raised  to  the  Bench,  as  one  of 
the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  on  the 
transfer  of  Sir  William  Erie  to  the  Court  of  Queen's 
Bench.1 

The  work  on  this  circuit,  especially  in  its  latter  stages, 
was  unusually  severe,  and  Denman's  health,  which  had 
already  been  shaken  by  the  excitement  of  the  Slave 
Trade  discussions,  and  the  strain  of  his  judicial  labors  in 
Westminster  Hall,  was  no  doubt  unfavorably  affected  by 
the  protracted  sittings,  not  unfrequently  lasting  over 
twelve  hours,  which  occasionally  fell  to  his  lot  during 
these  assizes. 

From  a  letter  written  to  Lady  Denman,  from  Salis- 
bury, on  March  11,  the  following  passage  may  be  ex- 
tracted, giving  a  brief  account  of  the  reception  of  him- 
self and  his  brother  judge  at  Strathfieldsaye  by  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  then  in  the  eightieth  year  of  his 
age: 

"  On  February  28,  on  arriving  at  the  Winchfielcl  sta- 
tion, and  during  the  long  process  of  taking  the  carriage 
off  the  truck  and  putting  to  the  horses,  we  were  assailed 
by  the  most  bitter  snow  and  rain  storm  I  ever  remem- 
ber. The  ground  was  deeply  covered  in  a  moment,  but 
we  drove  rapidly  to  Strathfieldsaye,  and  arrived  rather 

1  The  Right  Hon.  Sir  Edward  Vaughan  Williams,  called  to  the  Bar, 
1823  ;  published  his  standard  work,  "  On  the  Law  of  Executors,"  in  1832  ; 
raised  to  the  Bench,  November  1846;  retired,  1865,  when  he  was  added  to 
the  Privy  Council. 


208  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1849— 

late,  but  in  time,  seeing  lights  still  in  the  bed-rooms  and 
dressing-rooms.  The  house  was  all  comfort  and  bright- 
ness, the  Duke  cordial,  easy,  good-natured,  and  his  con- 
versation lively  and  entertaining;  my  brother  Judge 
'  Boswellized  '  him.  His  views  of  French  affairs  are  en- 
couraging, and  accord  exactly  with  my  own — viz.,  that 
the  present  Government  [the  Republic,  with  Louis 
Napoleon  as  President]  gives  the  best  security  for  pre- 
serving the  peace  that  can  be  expected,  and  that  the  two 
Bourbon  branches  can  never  bring  forth  the  fruit  of  good 
government,  enjoying  no  attachment  on  the  part  of 
France,  nor  deserving  any.  He  was  much  amused  by 
the  letter  in  '  Punch  '  written  in  his  name  (offering  to 
give  away  Jenny  Lind  to  Captain  Harris),1  and  he  men- 
tioned, incidentally,  a  practice  of  his  own,  which  ought  to 
be  general,  and  perhaps  may  be  made  so  by  his  exam- 
ple :  '  I  am  always  very  attentive  to  ladies  on  horseback, 
and  always  pull  up  when  I  meet  one.'  Then  he  men- 
tioned having  lately  met  a  lady,  riding  a  spirited  horse, 
to  whom  he  offered  his  company  for  protection,  which 
she  was  foolish  enough  to  decline.  He  rather  thought 
afterwards  that  it  was  his  new  '  daughter/  Jenny  Lind. 
Next  morning  the  hounds  met  there.  I  never  saw  a  meet 
before  ;  it  was  highly  animated." 

Sir  E.  V.  Williams  has  very  kindly  permitted  the  pub- 
lication of  his  more  accurate  and  graphic  account  of  this 
visit,  containing  a  very  vivid  transcript  of  the  sayings 
and  doings  of  their  illustrious  host : 

"  We  did  not  get  to  Strathfieldsaye  till  it  was  so  late 
that  the  Duke  had  gone  up  to  dress,  and  when  we  met 
before  dinner,  he  expressed  his  regret  that  he  had  not 
been  in  the  way  to  receive  us  as  usual.  Nothing  could 
be  kinder  or  more  hospitable  than  his  reception.  He 
seemed  very  well  and  in  excellent  spirits.  Lord  Douro 
and  Lord  Charles  Wellesley  were  there,  but  Lady 
Douro  was  in  Scotland,  and  Lady  Charles,  as  I  under- 
stood, expecting  her  confinement  in  London.  There 
was  a  large  party  of  the  county  gentlemen  of  the  first 

1  There  was  a  rumor  at  this  time  of  an  intended  marriage  between 
the  celebrated  singer,  Jenny  Lind  (now  Madame  Goldschmidt),  and 
Captain  Harris,  a  nephew  of  Mrs.  Grote,  wife  of  the  celebrated  historian  of 
Greece. 


1850.]     THE  GREAT  DUKE  BOSWELLIZED:       209 

distinction.  The  lady  guests  were  few,  and  I  can  not 
say  that  they  had  aristocratical  names.  Mrs.  and  Miss 
Browne  and  Mrs.  Smith  (the  Brownes  are  tenants  of  a 
house  belonging  to  the  Duke  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
Mrs.  Smith  is  the  wife  of  the  well-known  Assheton 
Smith)  ; l  there  was  also  a  Miss  Walmesley,  Mrs. 
Browne's  sister.  The  Duke  led  the  way  to  dinner ; 
Lord  Denman  took  Mrs.  Smith,  and  I  took  Mrs.  Browne. 
Lord  Denman  sate  at  the  Duke's  right  hand,  and  I  at 
his  left.  The  dinner  was  very  superb  and  good,  but  the 
waiting  very  bad ;  the  display  of  plate  quite  magnifi- 
cent. 

"  The  Duke  was  most  attractive  and  obliging,  and  I 
really  think  I  never  knew  any  one  make  himself  more 
agreeable.  As  soon  as  we  had  got  to  the  drawing-room, 
I  escaped  to  my  own  room  and  '  Boswellized,'  writing 
down  the  heads  of  his  talk  which  I  could  recollect,  and 
I  did  the  same  at  breakfast,  the  next  morning,  so  that  I 
am  able  to  give  you  pretty  exactly  some  of  the  things 
he  said. 

"  The  first  observations  I  can  recall  were  with  refer- 
ence to  Macaulay's  history.  He  said,  '  It  is  capital,  it 
puts  you  in  the  very  heart  of  the  society  of  the  time, 
and  makes  you  live  among  the  people  of  that  day.' 
Lord  Denman  said  that  it  was  rumored  Croker  meant  to 
attack  it  in  the  '  Quarterly.'  The  Duke  said :  '  Well, 
Croker  may  say  his  worst,  but  he  can't  make  it  out  any- 
thing but  a  book  of  great  value.  It  makes  you  see  and 
feel  the  motives  of  the  people  of  those  times.'  He  added, 
afterwards :  '  Macauley  has  no  doubt  had  great  advan- 
tages— in  Mr.  Fox's  book,  Sir  James  Mackintosh's,  and 
the  French  papers.  But  he  has  used  them  very  well — 
very  well  indeed'  Shortly  after  the  Duke  said :  '  It  is 
curious  how  the  system  of  a  double  mission  to  foreign 
courts  was  constantly  kept  up  under  the  old  French 
Monarchy,  one  ostensible,  the  other  secret.  Even  as 
late  as  Louis  XVI.,  Mirabeau  was  sent  in  that  way  to 
Berlin.  The  English  have  no  notion  of  this  kind  of 
thing,  nor  of  what  espoinage  there  is  in  every  depart- 

1  Schoolfellow  at  Eton,  and  former  opponent  of  Denman's  at  one  of  his 
elections  for  Nottingham;  the  famous  sportsman,  rider,  and  master  of 
hounds. 

II.— 14 


2io  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1849— 

ment  of  the  public  service  on  the  Continent.'  Lord 
Denman  said  :  '  One  consequence  is  that  as  people  write 
their  letters  knowing  they  will  be  read  before  they 
reach  their  destination,  they  word  them  accordingly/ 
The  Duke  said:  '  Yes,  yes,  to  be  sure.  I  remember 
when  I  commanded  the  army  in  Spain,  I  intercepted  a 
vast  deal  of  correspondence.  Amongst  the  rest  I  used  to 
intercept  the  letters  which  a  man  named  Bourke,  the 
Swedish  Envoy  at  Madrid  used  to  send  to  his  court.  They 
used  to  begin  with  a  regular  statement  of  what  the  author- 
ities said  had  taken  place,  or  would  take  place  ;  but  at  the 
end  he  used  to  add  :  metis  il  ya  des  malveillants  who  say 
so  and  so  ;  and  I  soon  found  out  that  what  he  wrote 
at  the  begining  was  false,  and  what  he  wished  his  Gov- 
ernment to  believe  was  what  the  malveillants  said.  I 
met  him  many  years  afterwards  in  London,  and  told  him 
what  I  had  suspected,  and  he  said  :  '  You  were  quite  right, 
that  was  our  cipher.'  Lord  Denman  observed  that  he 
had  been  told  the  system  of  espoinage  was  never 
stricter  in  France  than  during  the  first  Republic.  The 
Duke  said:  'Aye,  that  was  owing  to  the  trouble  the 
secret  societies  gave,  and  that  was  the  origin  of  their 
strict  system  of  passports.  I  remember  an  odd  thing 
about  the  French  system.  I  was  in  command  of  a  part 
of  the  troops  that  were  employed  to  help  the  expedition 
we  sent  against  Copenhagen,  and  a  gentleman  with  the 
historical  name  (this  was  the  Duke's  exact  expression) 
of  Rosencrantz,  who  was  living  thereabouts,  asked  me  to- 
dine.  We  walked  together  after  dinner,  and  he  told  me 
how  much  he  disliked  the  French  system  of  police  that 
had  been  introduced.  Said  he:  'Do  you  know,  now,  I 
shall  have  to  report  all  about  your  having  dined  with  me,, 
and  what  you  said  and  what  I  said,  and  also  this  very 
conversation  ?  '  I  replied  to  him,  '  Well,  we  have  not 
got  to  quite  such  a  pitch  of  civilization  as  that  ;  I  shan't: 
have  to  report  anything  to  my  commanding  officer  unless 
I  like  it.' 

"  Soon  after  the  Duke  began  to  talk  about  the  present 
state  of  France,  and  agreed  with  Lord  Denman  that 
Louis  Napoleon  had  done  very  well  [this  was  in  1849]. 
'  I  don't  know  what  better  they  could  do  than  have  him/ 
Lord  Denman  said.  '  Some  people  think  something. 


1850.]    THE  GREAT  DUKE  BOSWELLIZED.        211 

might  be  done  to  steady  the  French  by  uniting  the  two 
branches  of  the  Bourbon  family.'  The  Duke  :  '  Oh  no  ! 
neither  of  the  branches  has  left  a  single  recollection  to 
make  them  dear  to  the  people.'  He  said,  '  Carvaignac  is 
a  respectable,  sensible  man.  He  kept  his  power  as  long 
as  it  was  wanted,  and  then  he  could  keep  it  no  longer.' 
He  asked  Lord  Denman  if  he  had  been  acquainted  with 
Madame  de  Stael  ?  '  She  was '  (said  the  Duke)  '  a  clever, 
sensible  woman  ;  she  told  me  she  thought  the  old  French 
Republic  would  have  worked  well  enough  if  a  sucessful 
soldier  had  not  sprung  up.  But  I  think  she  was  wrong. 
It  was  tumbling  to  pieces  before  ;  so  many  of  the  lead- 
ing men  in  it  had  been  found  out  in  such  corruptions 
about  money.'  He  said  it  was  curious  how  anxious  the 
French  nation  now  were  to  have  the  English  public 
opinion  favorable  to  them,  and  he  believed  they  always 
looked  in  their  proceedings  to  what  the  English  would 
say.  '  And  it  is  very  strange,'  says  he,  '  the  first  thing 
this  new  Republic  did  was  to  tumble  on  the  worst 
measure  England  ever  took — maintaing  able-bodied  men 
at  the  public  expense — and  now  they  are  trying  the  re- 
fuse of  the  English  measures  (of  Spence  and  Owen), 
Socialism  and  that  sort  of  thing.' 

"  He  spoke  of  Phillpotts,  the  Bishop,  and  Lord  Den- 
man and  the  Duke  agreed  in  praising  his  speeches  and 
his  great  talents  for  debate.  '  But  (said  the  Duke)  he  is 
always  at  war  with  somebody,  which  a  bishop  ought  not 
to  be — he  is  always  in  hot  water  ;  he  can't  keep  out  ot 
hot  water.  You  know  what  Canning  wrote  in  his  letter 
offering  Lyndhurst  the  Seals  :  he  put  in  a  postscript, 
Pkillpotto  non  obstante?  And  this  is  all  I  recorded  of  the 
dinner  talk. 

"  In  the  drawing-room  the  Duke  sent  Miss  Walmesley 
to  the  piano  to  play  a  chant  which  he  had  heard  at  the 
Temple  Church,  and  was  so  much  pleased  with  it  that  he 
got  them  to  send  him  the  music.  It  was  for  the  responses 
between  the  Commandments.  Later  in  the  evening  he 
begged  her  to  play  it  again,  and  it  plainly  gave  him  real 
pleasure  to  hear  it. 

"  My  bed-room  was  on  the  ground  floor,  and  was  not 
sumptuously  furnished,  though  there  was  every  possible 
comfort  and  a  very  large  bed. 


212  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1849— 

"  Next  morning  at  breakfast,  in  the  gallery,  the  guests 
were  at  different  tables  of  four  persons  for  each  table — 
the  first  being  for  the  Duke  and  Mrs.  Assheton  Smith, 
Lord  Denman  and  myself.  The  Duke  was  silent  at  first, 
though  he  seemed  in  excellent  health  and  spirits,  and 
seemed  amused  at  the  conversation  that  was  going  on. 
At  last  he  said :  '  So  I  find  I've  got  a  new  daughter  given 
me  by  "  Punch" — I've  not  read  it  myself,  but  I  am  told 
there  is  a  letter  in  "  Punch."  "  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
presents  his  compliments  to  Miss  Jenny  Lind,  and  will 
be  very  happy  to  act  as  her  father  and  give  her  away  at 
her  wedding."  You  know  she  is  going  to  be  married  to 
Captain  Harris,  Mrs.  Grote's  nephew  ?  Well,  I  believe  I 
have  given  away  more  young  ladies  than  most  men 
in  England,  and  the  last  was  the  prettiest  I  ever  gave 
away,  and  that  was  Lady  Ely.'1  Mrs.  Smith  said: 
*  Is  it  true  that  Jenny  Lind  is  not  going  to  appear  on 
the  stage  again  ?  '  The  Duke  said  :  '  I  suppose  you 
think  you  have  a  right  to  ask  me,  now  I  am  one  of  the 
family.  Her  Majesty  (so  he  always  called  the  Queen) 
told  me  she  was  not  going  on  the  stage  again,  and  that 
Jenny  Lind  told  her  so.'  He  said  afterwards,  '  I  saw 
Jenny  Lind  the  other  day,  and  did  not  know  her  till  it 
was  too  late,  and  I'll  tell  you  how  it  was.  I  make  it  a 
rule,  if  I  see  a  lady  riding  before  me,  never  to  pass  her 
at  a  fast  pace.  I  always  pull  up  and  pass  her  quite  slowly, 
that  I  may  not  frighten  the  horse,  and  if  I  see  a  lady 
whose  horse  is  fidgety  and  giving  her  trouble,  I  always 
stop  and  ask  her  if  I  can  be  of  any  service  to  her.  Well, 
the  other  day  in  the  Park  I  was  riding  and  came  up  to  a 
lady  whose  horse  was  plaguing  her,  and  I  stopped  and 
took  my  hat  off  and  asked  her  if  I  could  be  of  any  ser- 
vice, and  said  my  horse  was  quite  quiet,  and  I  would 
ride  a  little  way  with  her  to  quiet  hers,  if  she  liked  it. 
She  knew  who  I  was,  and  said  :  "  No,  your  Grace,  thank 
you — I  won't  trouble  you,"  and  rode  on.  Then  it  im- 
mediately struck  me  it  was  Jenny  Lind,  And  her  I  am 
sure  it  was  now ;  and  it's  very  odd  I  didn't  recognize 
her,  for  I  know  her  quite  well  and  have  often  talked  to 
her.'  Lord  Denman  said  :  '  Your  story  has  not  raised 

1  Miss  Vere,  now  the  Dowager  Marchioness  of  Ely,  married  to  the  third 
Marquis  in  1844. 


1850.]    THE  GREAT  DUKE  BOSWELLIZED.        213 

my  opinion  of  her  good  sense.'  '  Hasn't  it,'  said  the 
Duke.  '  No,' said  Lord  Denman,  'she  ought  to  have 
accepted  your  offer,  whether  she  needed  it  or  not.' 
The  Duke  seemed  much  pleased,  and  said  :  '  Oh  that's 
it,  is  it.' 

"  After  breakfast  the  hounds  met  at  Strathfieldsaye, 
and  it  was  a  cheerful  sight.  We  left  soon  after  n  A.  M. 
Nothing  could  be  more  cordial  in  manner  than  the 
Duke's  adieux.  Of  course  it  was  mere  form — he  would 
have  said  the  same  to  any  other  judge  who  had  been  his 
guest  ;  still  it  was  pleasant  to  be  told  by  such  a  man 
that  he  was  very  glad  to  have  had  the  pleasure  and  the 
honor  of  seeing  me." 

At  Winchester  the  work  was  heavier  than  usual,  and 
occupied  the  greater  part  of  five  days.  The  Judges  took 
the  train  to  Salisbury,  and  missed  the  Sheriff,  who  after- 
wards, with  all  his  cavalcade,  followed  the  fly  in  which 
they  drove  to  their  lodgings.  The  beauty  of  the  cathe- 
dral, though  he  had  often  seen  it  before,  seems  to  have 
struck  Denman  more  than  ever  on  this  occasion,  and  his 
letter  to  his  wife  is  enthusiastic  on  the  subject.  He  tells 
an  odd  circumstance  connected  with  one  of  the  eastern 
windows  : 

"  I  must  tell  you  of  a  curious  disfigurement  of  this 
noble  building ;  a  window  at  the  east  end  has  a  wretched 
painting  of  a  brazen  serpent.  It  was  given  by  the  late 
Lord  Radnor,  an  odd  man,  who  surmounted  the  paint- 
ing with  his  armorial  bearings,  the  Earl's  coronet  occupy- 
ing the  highest  place.  The  motto  or  text  is  unfortunate  : 
'  Thus  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up,'  i.  e.  elevated 
to  the  dignity  of  an  earldom." 

On  his  way  from  Dorchester  to  Exeter,  Denman 
visited  for  the  first  time  the  closely  neighboring  country- 
seats  of  his  two  sincere  friends  and  highly  esteemed  judi- 
cial brethren,  Patteson  and  Coleridge,  then  both  absent 
on  their  respective  circuits.  He  thus  mentions  his  visit 
to  his  wife  (in  a  letter  of  March  18) :  had  his  spirits  and 
mental  power  been  what  they  once  were,  he  would  have 
doubtless  thrown  more  animation  into  his  description. 

"  Yesterday  we  turned  our  faces  westward,  and  visited 
on  our  journey  both  Patteson's  and  Coleridge's  country- 
seats.  I  was  delighted  with  their  beauty  and  comfort. 


214  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1849— 

Patteson's  (Feniton  Court,  near  Honiton)  is  really 
magnificent,  with  a  fine  long  avenue  and  a  charming 
undulation  of  ground.  Coleridge's  (Heath's  Court, 
Ottery  St.  Mary)  has  a  delightful  garden,  close  to  an 
ancient  church  very  large  and  curious.  They  are  about 
three  miles  apart,  in  a  fine  country."  ' 

At  Exeter  the  business  was  of  more  than  usual  im- 
portance and  difficulty,  and  he  had  frequently  to  sit  till 
a  late  hour  in  Court.  Writing  to  Lady  Denman,  on 
March  25,  from  Boconnor,  near  Bodmin,  he  says : 

"  Having  done  all  my  duty  at  Exeter  on  Saturday 
night  (leaving  Court  at  10  P.M.,  after  a  13  hours'  trial), 
Tom  and  I  traveled  westward,  and  are  now  at  Mr.  For- 
tescue's,  at  Boconnor,  a  very  fine  park  and  place,  the 
property  of  Lady  Grenville,  who  lends  it  for  his  resi- 
dence. He  is  brother  of  Lord  Fortescue,  a  most  amiable 
man — his  wife  a  sister  of  Lord  Harrowby's.  The  house 
belonged  to  Sir  Bevil  Grenville,  who  maintained  the 
fight  for  Charles  I.  in  these  parts  when  his  cause  was 
desperate  everywhere  else.  I  am  now  writing  in  the 
bedroom  of  that  ill-fated  king,  and  am  to  sleep,  I  believe, 
in  his  bed  to-night.  We  have  been  twice  to  church 
to-day,  in  two  different  churches  connected  with  this 
property,  and,  it  being  Lady-Day,  have  heard  two  ser- 
mons in  honor  of  the  Virgin  Mary." 

On  April  i  he  writes  from  Taunton,  the  last  place  at 
the  Spring  Assizes : 

"  On  Monday,  a  beautiful  sunny  day,  Mr.  Fortescue 
and  Lady  Louisa  mounted  us  on  ponies,  and,  with  their 
son,  we  made  a  long  day's  excursion  among  his  woods 
and  plantations,  which  are  of  great  extent  and  beauty. 
The  most  noble  situation  among  them  is  called  the 
'  Queen's  Bench,'  and  we  mean  to  hold  our  Court  there 
occasionally  during  the  Summer  Assizes.  My  work  at 
Bodmin  occupied  three  days,  and  on  the  fourth  I  assisted 
my  brother  Williams,  and  left  him  in  the  midst  of  a 
long  cause,  which,  I  believe,  still  detains  him.  We  had 
a  pleasant  dinner  and  evening  at  Plymouth,  and  yester- 
day the  return  journey  by  the  South  Devon  railway 

1  These  two  distinguished  and  excellent  judges  were  brothers-in-law, 
Patteson  having  married,  as  his  second  wife,  Frances  Duke,  the  sister  of 
Mr.  Justice  Coleridge. 


1850.]  STROKES    OF    PARALYSIS.  215 

made  up  for  previous  disappointments — the  sun  shining 
and  the  sea  splashing.  At  Dawlish,  Sir  Thomas  Acland 
got  into  our  carriage,  and  took  us  for  an  hour  or  so  to 
Killerton,  his  famous  and  fine  place,  where  we  had  just 
time  to  admire  the  grounds  and  take  luncheon.  At  3 
his  lady  drove  us  in  her  pony  carriage  so  as  to  be  just  in 
time  for  the  train  which  brought  us  here.  I  had  written 
to  tell  the  Sheriff  not  to  await  us  at  the  station,  where 
we  took  a  fly,  with  orders  to  drive  to  '  the  Castle,' 
whereupon  the  man  took  us  to  a  low  pot-house  of  that 
name.  The  mistake  was  soon  corrected,  and  we  had  a 
very  pleasant  tete-a-tete  evening." 

This  letter  is  the  last  he  ever  wrote  from  circuit,  and 
in  it,  as  in  those  that  had  immediately  preceded  it,  there 
is  observable,  not  only  an  absence  of  his  former  life  and 
spirits  but  a  marked  change  in  his  handwriting;  instead 
of  the  bold,  free  characters,  easily  written  and  easily 
read,  tie  MS.  becomes  cramped,  feeble,  and  difficult  to 
decipher.  The  affection  of  the  cerebral  and  nervous 
systems  under  which  he  finally  sank,  had  evidently 
already  commenced  its  insidious  and  unnoticed 
attacks. 

"On  Hs  return  to  London  [writes  his  third  son,  the 
Honoratie  Richard  Denman],  though  he  appeared  to 
have  felt  his  work  more  than  usual,  there  was  no  symp- 
toms tha,  created  alarm,  until  the  morning  before  Easter 
Term  (Ap-il  14,  1849),  when  the  power  of  his  right  side 
was  suddenly  and  totally  destroyed  by  a  paralytic  stroke. 
By  the  skll  of  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  and  Dr.  Holland, 
the  blow  vas  averted  for  a  time,  and,  in  a  few  weeks, 
the  use  o"  his  right  side  was  restored  to  him  ;  but 
they  were  very  anxious  that  ample  time  should  be 
given  for  omplete  recovery,  and  that  the  mind  should 
be  relieved  as  far  as  possible,  from  the  pressure  of 
business  an1  anxiety.  It  was,  however,  found  impossible 
to  resist  hisurgent  desire  to  return  to  his  post.  He  pre- 
sided in  theCourt  of  Queen's  Bench  during  the  whole 
of  Trinity  "erm  (May  22  to  June  12);  twice  appeared 
and  spoke  inthe  House  of  Lords;  and  when  the  sum- 
mer circuits  began,  he  took  the  business  of  chamber 
judge  in  Ladon.1  He  went  during  this  period  to  stay 

1  During  the  Smmer  Circuit  and  Long  Vacation  one  of  the  Common 


216  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1849— 

with  Captain  Holland,  his  son-in-law,2  at  Hampstead,  as 
it  was  hoped  that  the  daily  ride  to  and  from  London 
would  give  him  his  requisite  exercise,  and  be  less 
fatiguing  than  going  round  a  circuit.  He  was  not,  how- 
ever, allowed  to  go  through  even  with  the  business  of 
chambers,  for  on  July  21,  not  having  been  able  to  resist 
his  desire  of  again  committing  his  thoughts  to  paper,  on 
that,  to  him,  most  exciting  subject,  the  Slave  Trade,  he 
was  again  attacked  by  paralysis  while  in  the  midst  of 
his  writing,  and,  though  the  seizure  was  in  its  beginning 
so  much  more  mild  and  gradual  than  the  first  as  to  give 
his  family  ground  to  hope  a  more  speedy  recovery,  yet 
these  hopes  were  soon  destroyed ;  though  more  slow,  it 
was  more  complete,  and  the  recovery,  which  aft;r  all 
was  but  partial,  showed  to  the  end  of  his  life  howmuch 
his  physical  power  had  been  shattered." 

The  first  of  the  two  occasions  referred  to  in  theabove 
passage,  as  those  on  which  Denman,  after  his  firststroke 
of  paralysis,  addressed  the  House  of  Lords,  was  Jane  13, 
1849,  when  the  then  Bishop  of  Oxford  (late  of  Winches- 
ter), in  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  eloquent  Beeches 
ever  pronounced  in  Parliament,  well  worthy  the  son  of 
Wilberforce,  proposed  an  amendment  to  the  Ac  repeal- 
ing the  Navigation  Laws,  refusing  to  the  ships  o  nations 
actively  engaged  in  the  African  Slave  Trade  tie  privi- 
leges proposed  to  be  given  by  that  Act  to  foregn  ships 
in  general.  Denman,  who  heartily  supported  tit  amend- 
ment, declared  in  a  few  emphatic  words  his  fcm  belief 
in  the  final  extinction  of  the  Slave  Trade :  it  had  been 
so  far  repressed  that  it  could  be  effectually  suppressed, 
nothing  being  wanted  to  that  end  except  a  f?m  convic- 
tion, on  the  part  of  the  slave-trading  natiois,  of  the 
sincere  determination  of  England  and  the  /ther  great 
Powers  to  put  it  down.8 

The  second  occasion  was  June  22,  184!,  when  he 
spoke  at  some  length  and  with  great  abiliHon  moving 
the  second  reading  of  a  Bill  which  had  alcady  passed 
the  House  of  Commons,  to  enable  those  tersons  who 

Law  Judges  always  remains  in  town  for  conducting  the  Cyrent  business  at 
Judges'  Chambers. 

1  Married  to  Hon.  Ann,  fifth  daughter  of  Lord  Denmai] 

2  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  cvi.  p.  45. 


1850.]  OATHS    BILL.  217 

had  religious  scruples  against  taking  an  oath,  to  make  an 
affirmation  instead. 

He  pointed  out  the  limited  scope  of  this  present  Bill 
as  compared  with  bills  of  a  similar  kind  which,  on  three 
previous  occasions,  he  had  brought  before  the  House. 
"The  persons,"  he  said,  "whom  it  was  intended  to  relieve 
by  the  present  measure,  were  those  who  appeared 
now  and  then  to  give  evidence  in  a  Court  of  Justice,  and 
who,  on  being  called  on  to  swear,  said,  '  On  my  conscience 
I  believe  that  the  very  book  on  which  you  ask  me  to 
swear  prohibits  me  from  taking  an  oath,  and  I  can  not, 
therefore,  take  it  without  sin.'  " 

He  then  related  with  great  force  and  liveliness 
some  scandalous  scenes  which  had  recently  occurred  in 
Courts  of  Justice  between  Judges  on  the  one  hand  and 
witnesses  on  the  other,  the  one  seeking  to  enforce  the 
oath,  the  other  to  evade  it,  and  he  asked  "  whether  the 
present  state  of  things  was  not  such  as  was  likely  to  de- 
feat justice,  with  no  other  advantage  than  the  pleasure 
of  sending  to  gaol  a  respectable  person  merely  for  differ- 
ing from  ourselves  on  the  construction  of  a  doubtful 
passage  ?  " 

His  speech,  in  short,  was  an  able  and  effective  one, 
but  the  result  of  his  motion  was  the  same  discouraging 
and  direct  negative  that  had  attended  all  his  previous 
efforts  on  this  question  in  the  House  of  Lords — contents 
only  10,  non-contents  34,  a  majority  of  24  against  him 
in  a  House  of  44/ 

This  measure  of  simple  wisdom  and  justice,  limited,  as 
it  was  limited  in  the  bill  rejected  in  1849,  to  persons 
objecting,  on  religious  grounds,  to  take  an  oath,  at  length 
became  law,  five  years  afterwards,  in  the  year  of  Den- 
man's  death,  by  virtue  of  the  twentieth  clause  of  the 
Common  Law  Procedure  Act  of  1854,  as  to  Courts  of 
Civil  Judicature ;  and  the  privilege  has  been  extended, 
by  subsequent  legislation,  to  all  Courts,  civil  or  criminal, 
in  the  three  kingdoms. 

One  case  is  still  left  unprovided  for,  that  of  persons 
objecting  to  take  an  oath  not  on  religious  grounds  at  all, 
but  on  irreligious  grounds,  on  the  ground,  namely,  of 

1  Hansard,  Parl.  Deb.,  third  series,  vol.  cvi. 


2i8  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1849— 

non-belief  in  a  personal  God,  and  reluctance,  therefore, 
to  go  through  the  mockery  of  invoking  Him.  As  to 
this  case,  all  that  can  be  said  is  that  every  argument 
applicable  to  other  cases,  for  substituting  affirmations 
for  oaths,  applies  equally  in  this,  and  that  the  sooner  the 
legislature  accords  the  privilege  of  affirming  instead  of 
swearing  to  this  class  of  objectors  also,  the  better  it  will 
be  for  the  dignity  of  the  Judges,  the  decorum  of  the 
Courts,  and  the  interests  of  justice  and  truth. 

As  soon  as  Denman  could  leave  town,  he  went  down 
to  Stony  Middleton  to  pass  the  Long  Vacation,  remote 
from  the  exciting  topics  of  the  hour,  in  a  state,  as  far  as 
possible,  of  absolute  quietude  and  repose.  His  removal, 
however,  could  not,  it  was  found,  safely  take  place  till 
August  22,  before  which  time,  and  while  still  staying  with 
Captain  and  Mrs.  Holland,  at  Hampstead,  he  dictated, 
for  he  could  not  write,  the  following  lines  to  his  attached 
friend  and  brother  Judge,  Coleridge : 

"  Hampstead :  August  7,  1849. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — I  am  very  much  obliged  for 
both  your  letters,  both  that  which  arrived  on  the  day  I 
was  taken  ill,  and  that  which  coincides  with  my  slow, 
but  I  hope  sure,  recovery. 

"  Everything,  I  believe,  has  been  very  prosperous  in 
the  course  of  that  progress,  but  it  appears  to  me  ex- 
tremely gradual.  I  hope  that  Talfourd's  appointment, 
every  way  desirable  as  it  is,1  will  have  the  effect  of  re- 
moving all  difficulties  about  attending  chambers  in  the 
vacation  ;  but  the  more  interesting  intelligence  is  that 
of  your  wedding,3  which  we  rejoice  in,  hoping  to  hear 
that  it  has  gone  off  perfectly  well,  and  that  it  unfolds  a 
prospect  of  everything  the  most  auspicious.  I  only  re- 
gret that  you  were  deprived  of  Patteson's  presence 
[then  on  Northern  Circuit],  but  I  cherish  the  hope  that 
Wightman  [who  had  also  been  the  Northern  Circuit] 
will  bring  him  to  Middleton  on  his  way  to  Devonshire. 

"  I  enjoy  the  account  of  your  circuit,  and  quite  agree 
with  you  that  it  would  have  been  much  better  for  me 
than  chambers ;  but  it  was  not  chambers  that  threw  me 

1  Talfourd  succeeded  Coltman  as  Judge  of  the  Common  Pleas  in  1849. 
*  Marriage  of  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge. 


1850.]  CORRESPONDENCE.  219 

on  my  back.     Pray  offer  our  united  congratulations  and 
condolence  to  Lady  Coleridge,  and  believe  me, 

"  Ever  yours  truly, 

"  A"1 

A  postscript  follows,  showing  that  he  was  able  to 
amuse  himself  with  literature — "  Do  you  know  who  wrote 
*  Friends  in  Council  ?  '"  a 

On  October  I  he  again  dictated  a  letter  to  Coleridge, 
animated  with  a  delightful  spirit  of  cheerful  resignation, 
even  here  and  there  breaking  out  in  playfulness: 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — I  will  not  say  that  it  is  worth 
while  to  have  been  so  ill  for  the  sake  of  receiving  so 
much  kindness,  but  a  modification  of  that  sentiment 
might  conform  pretty  exactly  to  the  truth.  Perhaps  you 
will  not  discover  by  the  handwriting  that  I  employ  an- 
other amanuensis  [Lady  Denman  ;  on  the  former  occa- 
sion Mrs.  Holland  had  probably  been  scribe]  ;  but  I 
shall  make  a  larger  claim  on  both  her  patience  and  on 
yours  than  on  the  last  occasion.  I  think  our  autumn 
less  advanced  than  yours,  as  you  describe  it.  I  see  a 
great  many  trees  from  my  present  seat  without  a  single 
yellow  leaf,  and  we  have  several  real,  not  China,  roses  in 
full  blossom,  and  daily  putting  forth  fresh  buds.  We 
are  very  literary  and  very  idle  in  our  studies.  Cholera 
we  have  had  none,  but  we  are  to  have  a  fast  on  Wednes- 
day (3rd),  and  I  am  told  a  sermon  was  preached  yester- 
day for  the  occasion,  from  which  it  would  appear  that 
our  national  sins  lie  chiefly  in  our  ecclesiastical  appoint- 
ments and  love  of  Popery.8  I  hope  we  shall  amend  our 
lives.  I  hope  also  that  Patteson  will  not  suffer  for  his 
ball  ; 4  that  is  a  dangerous  subject  in  your  diocese.  I 
shall  be  sorry  to  hear  of  his  occupying  the  same  cell 

1  This  mark  seems  to  have  been  made  with  his  own  hand. 

1  Sir  Arthur  Helps. 

a  A  sly  hit  at  the  High  Church  views  of  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge.  Cholera 
was  prevalent  in  1849,  and  fasts  were  frequent. 

4  Patteson  had  sent  out  invitations  for  a  ball  at  Feniton  Court  for  Sep- 
tember 20;  on  the  igth  a  fast  was  afterwards  appointed  for  the  adjoining 
parish  of  Ottery  St.  Mary,  and,  in  consequence,  some  of  the  invited  stayed 
away  from  the  dance.  The  Western  Times  took  up  the  matter,  greatly  to 
Patteson's  annoyance,  as  showing  the  growing  influence  of  the  High  Church 
clergy  in  the  diocese  of  Exeter,  and  the  freedom  of  the  Judge  from  all 
"  narrow  prejudices." 


220  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1849— 

with  Mr.  Head.1  I  think  the  unusual  warmth  of  the 
weather  accounts  for  his  feeling  more  fatigued  in  the 
pursuit  of  partridges,  and  I  am  more  delighted  than  I 
can  express  to  hear  of  your  increasing  energy.  Now,  my 
dear  Coleridge,  I  must  warmly  thank  you  for  your  prac- 
tical and  most  friendly  suggestion.  My  opinion  of  my 
own  case  I  mean  to  scrawl  in  Greek  characters  if  I  can 
find  strength  and  dexterity  for  the  effort.8  I  am  certainly 
much  better  than  I  have  been,  but  sometimes  a  little 
dispirited  by  the  slow  progress  I  make.  I  am,  however, 
by  no  means  desponding,  and  determined  to  make 
the  best  of  everything,  notwithstanding  the  strange 
alternation  of  feelings,  and  the  difficulty  of  distinguish- 
ing between  power  actually  acquired  and  that  made 
more  skillful  by  practice.  The  expedient  you  propose 
may,  perhaps,  be  properly  tried,  but  we  are  yet  nearly  a 
month  from  term,  and  a  change  of  circumstances  may 
decide  for  us  otherwise.  At  all  events, 

"  1  am,  ever  very  sincerely  yours, 

"  DENMAN." 

This  signature,  in  his  own  handwriting,  has  evidently 
been  accomplished  with  great  difficulty,  and  on  the 
blank  leaf  of  the  letter  is  written  twice  over  (the  first 
attempt  having  been  a  comparative  failure)  the  Homeric 
line  descriptive  of  what  he  felt  to  be  his  precarious  con- 
dition : 

Kai  vvv  ravrd  ys  navta  Oeriov  er  yovvadi  K£irai.z 
On  October  29,  he  dictated  another  letter  to  Coleridge, 
intended,  also,  to  be  seen  by  Patteson.  His  two  brother 
Judges  had  written  in  the  kindest  terms,  begging  him 
not  to  think  of  getting  into  work  before  Christmas, 
and  suggesting  arrangements  by  which  the  business  of 
the  Court  might,  until  that  time,  be  carried  on  in  his 
absence : 

"  Middleton,  October  29,  1849. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — This  is  my  answer  to    your 

1  A  clerical  victim  at  that  time  of  the  episcopal  zeal  of  the  fiery  prelate, 
Phillpotts,  in  whose  diocese  of  Exeter  both  Patteson  and  Coleridge  had 
their  country  seats. 

1  Probably  to  conceal  his  view  as  to  his  precarious  condition  from  her  who 
acted  as  his  amanuensis. 

8  "  And  now,  in  very  truth,  these  things  are  all  in  the  lap  of  the  gods," 
i.  f.,  in  the  hands  of  Providence. 


1850.]  CORRESPONDENCE.  221 

kind  letter  to  myself  and  Patteson's  to  Tom  [present 
Lord  Denman].  I  agree  entirely  in  your  views,  and  am 
rejoiced  more  than  I  can  express,  to  receive  such  an  as- 
surance of  your  feelings,  but  I  do  think  you  are  a  little 
too  indulgent  as  to  the  nature  of  the  question.  It  ap- 
pears to  me  that  the  burden  of  proving  future  capacity, 
lies  on  the  now  incapacitated.  I  understand  .the  Chan- 
cellor1 to  have  so  stated  it,  and  it  was  that  which  first 
occurred  to  my  own  mind;  if,  therefore,  the  medical 
opinion  is  very  clear  that  that  capacity  can  not  be  ex- 
pected to  return  within  a  reasonable  time,  I  think  that 
the  final  resolution  must  now  be  taken.  I  offered  to  go 
to  town  to  be  inspected  and  examined,  but  Brodie  has 
kindly  offered  to  make  his  observation  here,  and  will 
come  to-morrow.  Perhaps  you  will  think  that  I  might 
have  delayed  writing  till  the  report  is  made,  but  I  thought 
it  better  that  you  should  have  my  view  of  the  state  of 
the  question,  and  I  will  write  and  inform  you  of  his 
opinion  in  time  for  your  consultation.  I  think  I  may 
rely  on  your  opinion  to  that  extent  in  which  I  agree 
with  its  being  adopted  by  our  two  other  brethren  [Erie 
and  Wightman],  at  least  supposing  Wightman  to  be  in 
force,  but  his  condition  is  an  important  element  in  the 
case.  I  own  the  difficulty  I  have  most  strongly  felt  has 
been  the  postponement  till  Christmas,  but  that  is  entirely 
removed  by  what  the  Chancellor  has  said,  provided  you 
are  unanimous  in  thinking  that  the  interval  may  be 
filled  up. 

"  I  can  not  tell  how  gladly  I  hear  of  Lady  Coleridge's 
improvement  in  health,  trusting,  with  entire  confidence, 
that  it  may  be  very  favorable  to  your  own. 
"  Believe  me,  my  dear  brothers,3 

"  Sincerely  and  affectionately  yours. 

"  DENMAN." 

Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  came  down  to  Middleton,  and 
his  opinion  then  was  that  if  Lord  Denman  abstained 
from  judicial  work  till  after  the  ensuing  Christmas,  there 
was  a  sufficient  possibility  of  his  then  being  able  per- 
manently to  resume  his  judicial  duties  to  justify  him  in 
postponing  his  resignation. 

His  brother  Judges,  with  the  most  active  kindness  and 

1  Lord  Cottenham.  s  Coleridge  and  Patteson. 


222  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1849— 

consideration,  made  every  arrangement,  regardless  of 
the  additional  labor  thus  imposed  on  themselves,  for 
carrying  on  without  him  the  business  of  the  Queen's 
Bench,  both  in  Bane  and  at  Nisi  Prius,  till  the  Christmas 
Vacation,  he  supplying  them,  from  time  to  time,  with  all 
needful  information  upon  motions  for  new  trials  in  cases 
which  had  been  tried  before  him  on  the  assizes  and 
during  the  sittings  before  his  attack. 

Several  letters  communicating  such  information  have 
been  preserved,  but  are  naturally  not  of  sufficient  interest 
to  justify  insertion.  The  last  of  the  series  (written  to 
Coleridge)  was  commenced  on  December  22,  and  con- 
tinued on  the  25th.  It  is  in  his  own  hand,  the  writing 
very  shaky,  and  evidently  the  result  of  considerable 
labor,  but  still  a  great  improvement  on  his  previous 
attempts.  Omitting  a  reference  to  a  case  of  Reg.  v.  Hay, 
of  no  interest,  except,  as  the  newspapers  say,  to  the 
parties  concerned,  the  letter  runs  thus: 

"  Middleton  :  December  22,  1849. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — I  sit  down  to  thank  you  after  a 
sunny  drive  and  a  visit  to  the  monster  lily  at  Chatsworth, 
covering  the  water  of  a  tank  twenty  feet  square. 

"  Christmas  Day. 

"  Many  happy  years  to  you  and  yours !  I  did  not  be- 
lieve a  word  in  the  papers  about  you  [as  to  intended 
retirement],  and  hope  you  do  me  the  same  justice.  Spite 
of  paragraphs  nothing'  has  passed.  My  plan  is  to  take 
my  seat  on  the  first  day  of  Hilary  Term  (January  11, 
1850),  finish  off  all  I  must  take  part  in,  and  then  decide. 
What  the  doctors  will  say  I  know  not,  but  my  opinion 
wholly  agrees  with  that  expresed  by  you  and  Patteson 
two  months  ago.  I  have  no  respect  for  the  doctrine  ot 
the  '  safe  side  '  carried  to  excess.  '  Had  these  children 
stayed  at  home,'  &c.  But  at  the  present  moment  I  can 
form  no  resolution,  for  my  wife  has  had  a  dangerous  ill- 
ness,1 and  keeps  me  very  anxious.  With  kindest 
brotherly  remembrances, 

"  I  am,  most  truly  and  affectionately, 

"  My  dear  Coleridge,  yours, 

"  DENMAN." 
His  family  and  those  constantly  about  him,  knowing 

1  Bri^ht's  disease. 


1850.]          LETTER    FROM    BROUGHAM.  223 

how  unfit  he  really  was  to  resume  work,  were  alarmed  at 
his  apparently  firm  resolution  and  expressed  intention  to 
do  so.  His  best  friends  took  the  view  that  the  time 
for  his  retirement  had  definitely  come — a  view  which 
Brougham  expressed  with  characteristic  energy  as 
follows : 

"  Cannes  :  December  18,  1849. 

"  My  dear  friend, — Since  I  last  wrote,  two  months  ago, 
my  eye  has  been  kept  on  Middleton  and  B.  R.  [Bancum 
Reginse,  Queen's  Bench],  and  I  must  now  declare  the 
clear  and  unhesitating  conclusion  to  which  I  have 
arrived,  that  it  is  a  duty  to  yourself,  your  family,  your 
friends,  your  own  comfort,  your  precious  life — I  will  add 
your  fame, .your  enduring  fame — that  you  should  not 
hesitate  a  moment  about  retiring  at  once  from  office. 
You  have  been  seventeen  years  Chief  Justice — Ellenbo- 
rough  was  sixteen,  Tenterden  fourteen,  Kenyon  being 
eighteen — so  that  you  have  well  earned  your  ease,  and 
you  will  enjoy  it.  You  can  read,  can  write,  can  legis- 
late, can  sit  in  the  Privy  Council  and  House  of  Lords. 
In  short  you  should  on  no  account  whatever  complain. 
Observe,  I  don't  regard  this,  after  all  I  have  said,  as  op- 
tional. I  am  putting  it  as  though  you  had  the  choice.  I 
am  quite  certain  you  have  no  such  thing.  You  have  had 
two  attacks,  and  the  third  would  be  fatal,  or  worse. 
Attend  to  the.  fact ; — you  would  get  excited  and  nervous 
— one  risk  for  a  nervous  malady.  You  would  get  suspi- 
cious of  yourself;  this  would  make  you  uneasy  and 
irritable — another  risk.  Some  ass  of  a  witness,  or  fop  of 
a  counsel,  would  put  you  out,  throw  you  off  your  guard 
— more  excitement  and  more  risk.  So  I  really  can  not 
quite  leave  you  the  'month  for  your  decision.'  I  almost 
object  to  your  jurisdiction.  I  still  must  object  very 
peremptorily  to  the  opinions  you  will  get  from  col- 
leagues, &c. ;  they  will  tell  you  one  thing  and  to  them- 
selves another  thing.  I  take  the  question  into  my  own 
hands,  and  pray  you  only  to  affirm  my  decision  and  ex- 
cuse this.  I  wish  you  were  in  this  noble  climate,  the 
finest  sunshine,  and  the  air  quite  bracing.  My  belief  is 
you  would  be  much  the  better  for  it. 

"  Yours  ever, 

"  BROUGHAM." 


224  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1849— 

The  day  before  the  above  letter  was  written  from 
Cannes,  Patteson,  as  Senior  Puisne  Judge  of  the  Queen's 
Bench,  had  written  on  behalf  of  himself  and  his  brother 
judges  to  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  in  order  to  obtain  his 
opinion,  in  consultation  with  Dr.  Holland,1  as  to  the 
probability  of  Lord  Denman's  being  able  to  resume  his 
seat  without  risk  to  his  health,  and  in  full  possession  of 
his  faculties,  mental  and  bodily,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
ensuing  Hilary  Term  (January  n)  or  at  any  proximately. 
subsequent  period.  In  the  course  of  his  note  to  Sir  B. 
Brodie  Mr.  Justice  Patteson  says: 

"  We  can  legally  continue  to  conduct  the  business  of 
the  Court,  as  we  have  during  the  last  term,  and  without 
personal  inconvenience  to  ourselves ;  but  obviously  not 
with  the  same  efficiency  and  satisfaction  to  the  public  as 
if  we  had  our  head  with  us,  and  especially  such  a  head  as 
Lord  Denman,  whose  absence  is  a  serious  loss  to  the 
public  service. 

"  I  am  quite  confident  that  Lord  Denman  is  the  last  man 
in  the  world  who  would  permit  such  a  state  of  things 
to  continue  any  longer,  unless  there  was  a  very  strong 
probability  and  almost  a  moral  certainty  that  it  would 
be  put  an  end  to  by  his  resumption  within  a  short  time 
of  his  seat,  without  fear  of  consequences." 

Adverting  to  a  suggestion  that  had  apparently 
been  made  in  the  course  of  correspondence,  Patteson 
adds: 

"  I  think  it  hardly  practicable  that  a  Judge  should  sit 
in  Court,  having  notes  of  what  passes  in  legal  arguments 
taken  by  some  one  for  him  because  he  is  unable  to  take 
them  himself,  from  a  permanent  bodily  infirmity,  though 
his  mind  be  not  affected ;  and  if  it  were  even  practicable 
it  would  be  anything  but  desirable  or  decorous." 

Lord  Denman's  son  George  (now  Mr.  Justice  Denman), 
who  had  then  for  some  few  years  been  called  to  the 
Bar,  and  had  thus  an  opportunity  of  knowing  the  feeling 
on  the  subject  in  Westminster  Hall,  was  very  anxious  to 
get  from  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  a  decided  opinion,  which 
might  be  shown  to  his  father,  as  to  the  probability  or 

1  Now  Sir  Henry  Holland,  Bart.,  born  1788  ;  Physician-in-Ordinary  to 
the  Queen,  1852  ;  the  accomplished  author  of  "  Medical  Notes  and  Reflec- 
tions," "  Recollections  of  a  Past  Life,"  &c. 


1850.]  LETTER  FROM  MR.  J.    WIGHTMAN.       225 

otherwise  of  his  being  able  within  a  reasonable  period, 
to  resume  his  seat. 

Sir  Benjamin's  letter  in  answer  was  written  on 
Christmas  Day,  1849,  and  though  expressed  with  great 
caution  and  the  nicest  care  to  avoid  any  language  capa- 
ble of  wounding  the  susceptibilities  of  his  illustrious 
friend  and  relative,  it  yet  clearly  conveyed  the  joint 
opinion  of  Dr.  Holland  and  himself — ist.  That  it  would 
be  impossible  to  fix  on  any  definite  period  at  which 
Lord  Denman  could  resume  his  duties  of  Chief  Justice; 
2nd.  That,  under  the  whole  circumstances  of  the  case, 
it  had  become  their  duty  to  suggest  that  he  should  lose 
no  time  in  resigning  his  office. 

This  communication  and  Brougham's  letter  no  doubt 
produced  a  strong  effect,  but  Denman  still  insisted  on 
putting  off  his  final  decision  till  after  his  return  to 
town  and  a  consultation  with  some  physician  less  likely 
to  be  influenced  by  extra-professional  feelings  than  he 
perhaps  imagined  might  be  the  case  with  his  old  friend, 
Dr.  Holland,  and  his  still  older  friend  and  first  cousin, 
Sir  Benjamin  Brodie. 

He  received  many  kind  letters  about  this  time  from 
his  judicial  brethren,  among  which  room  must  be  found 
for  the  following  characteristic  lines  from  his  good,  sim- 
ple-hearted, and  altogether  excellent  colleague,  Wight- 
man. 

"  Hampton,  December  31,  1849. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — I  can  not  suffer  the  old  year  to  pass 
away,  or  date  a  letter  1849,  f°r  t^ie  ^ast  time,  without 
sending  our  best  and  warmest  hopes  and  wishes  for  the 
coming  and  many  future  years  to  you  and  yours.  I  am 
sitting,  as  I  daresay  you  are,  in  the  midst  of  children  and 
grandchildren,  which  is  as  happy  a  state  as  can  be  wished 
for  on  the  last  day  of  1849,  by  one  who  was  born  some 
years  before  the  end  of  the  present  century  ; l  but,  after 
all,  I  am  not  so  old  as  my  years  would  indicate,  for  I 
was  young  enough,  on  Friday  last,  the  29th  instant,  at 
the  instigation  of  my  youngest  daughter,  to  go  with  her 
to  Vauxhall  to  see  the  effects  of  the  prodigious  tide, 
which,  we  were  assured  by  the  philosophers,  would  take 

1  Mr.  Justice  Wightman  was  born  in  1785,  and  was  now,  therefore,  in  his 
sixty-fifth  year. 

n— 15 


226  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.        [1849— 

place  on  that  day.  But  it  did  so  happen  that  the  tide, 
instead  of  being  higher,  was  rather  lower  than  usual, 
leaving  the  philosophers  no  other  consolation  than  the 
belief  that  their  theory  was  right,  and  that  it  ought  to 
have  been  higher.  Of  our  brethren  I  know  nothing,  as 
I  believe  they  are  all  out  of  town  ;  a  conclusion  at  which 
I  have  arrived  from  the  applications  that  have  been, 
made  to  me  here,  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no  other 
Judge  in  London,  Hampton  being  considered  within  the 
metropolitan  district.  I  can  well  imagine  Middleton  in 
its  winter  garb,  from  my  knowledge  of  it  in  its  summer 
clothing,  and  can  fancy  the  appearance  of  the  hills  when 
covered  with  snow,  different,  but  picturesque  as  ever, 
and  on  a  fine  day  as  beautiful  as  in  summer.  But  how 
do  you  manage  for  the  air  and  exercise  I  know  you  de- 
light in  ?  Is  it  not  too  cold  for  open  carriages  of  any 
sort  ?  But  I  believe  that  any  kind  of  going  out  into  the 
air  is  better  than  sitting  with  nose  and  knees  over  the 
fire,  reading  the  '  Memories  of  Mrs.  Hannah  More/  as  I 
have  been  doing  all  the  morning.  We  all  send  our  best 
and  kindest  regards  and  wishes  to  Lady  Denman,  the 
Marshal,  and  Mrs.  Denman  [present  Lord  and  his  first 
wife],  and  every  one  of  the  family  now  with  you  ;  and 
"  Believe  me  ever,  my  dear  Lord, 

"  Yours,  most  sincerely, 

"WILLIAM   WlGHTMAN."  ' 

Upon  his  return  to  town,  on  January  19,  1850,  Den- 
man, who  had  meanwhile  been  induced,  owing,  in  great 
measure,  to  the  serious  illness  of  Lady  Denman,  to 
forego  his  intention  of  taking  his  seat  in  Court  on  the 
first  day  of  Hilary  Term,  submitted  his  case  to  the  cele- 
brated physician,  Dr.  Thomas  Watson,"  from  whom  he 
received  the  following  clear,  able,  and  decisive  opinion  : 

"  16  Henrietta  Street,  Cavendish  Square, 

"  January  22,   1850. 

"  My  dear  Lord  Denman, — The  task  you  have  assigned 
me,  though  a  painful,  is  not  a  difficult  one. 

1  To  those  who  knew  Mr.  Justice  Wightman,  the  little  good-natured 
sneer  at  the  philosophers,  and  the  trait  of  spending  a  winter's  day,  "  nose 
and  knees  "  over  the  fire,  reading  "  Hannah  More's  Memoirs,"  will  be  de- 
licious. 

*  Born  1792  ;  created  a  Baronet,  A.  D.  1866  ;  President  of  the  College  of 
Physicians,  1862;  Chief  Physician-in-Ordinary  to  tlv;  Q-ieen,  1870. 


1850.]  RETIREMENT— WATSON'S  OPINION.    227 

"  It  is  painful  to  me  to  disappoint  what  I  know  to  be 
your  own  hope  and  desire,  but,  in  contributing  my 
opinion  on  a  question  so  important,  I  am  bound  to  make 
your  safety  the  paramount  object  of  my  regard. 

"  I  think  it  would  be  very  imprudent  and  very  unsafe 
for  your  Lordship  to  again  exercise  your  judicial  func- 
tions. 

"  A  portion  of  your  nervous  system,  the  source  of  vol- 
untary power  over  the  right  side  of  the  body,  has  more 
than  once  suffered  damage,  is  still,  though  recovering, 
in  a  hurt,  infirm,  and  unsound  condition.  Each  indica- 
tion of  mischief  has  been  more  strongly  marked,  and 
more  slowly  and  imperfectly  repaired,  than  the  former. 
Hitherto,  that  neighboring  portion  of  the  same  nervous 
system  which  ministers  to  the  intellect  is  happily  intact. 
But  the  failure  which  has  already  happened  to  the  limbs 
is  only  too  plain  an  index  of  the  ruin  which  the  slightest 
act  of  imprudence  might  determine  to  the  mental  facul- 
ties, and  even  to  life.  Under  ordinary  care  there  is 
nothing  in  your  Lordship's  present  state  to  forbid  the 
hope  of  years  yet  to  come  of  physical  comfort,  and  of 
mental  integrity  and  enjoyment.  But  these,  in  my  hum- 
ble judgment,  would  be  put  in  jeopardy  by  every 
occasion  of  great  intellectual  effort,  of  excitement  of 
mind  or  of  unusual  bodily  exertion,  fatigue,  or  exposure. 

"  Upon  these  grounds  I  am  as  clear  in  dehorting  your 
Lordship  from  attendance  in  Court  to  deliver  a  single 
judgment,  as  from  continuing  to  subject  your  brain  to 
the  pressure  and  hazard  of  the  duties  belonging  to  your 
high  judicial  office. 

"  Your  Lordship  will,  I  am  sure,  believe  that  I  come  to 
this  conclusion  conscientiously  and  reluctantly,  and  that 
it  would  have  been  much  more  agreeable  to  me,  had  I 
dared,  to  give  you  counsel  more  in  accordance  with  your 
own  wishes. 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  Lord,  with  the  greatest  respect 
and  esteem,  and  with  every  good  wish, 

"  Your  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 
"THOMAS  WATSON." 

This  opinion  was  decisive,  and  he  at  once  determined 
to  resign.  Before,  however,  actually  sending  in  his 
resignation,  and  thus  depriving  himself  of  all  further 


228  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1849— 

power  of  judicial  action,  he  felt  it  incumbent  on  him 
to  hold  long  and  anxious  consultations  with  his  col- 
leagues on  the  judgments  it  would  be  fitting  to  pass 
in  certain  difficult  and  important  cases  which  had  been 
argued  before  himself  and  them  while  he  was  still 
presiding  in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  and  which 
yet  awaited  a  final  decision.  In  one  of  these  cases, 
especially,  that  of  Russell  v.  Phillips,  he  took  a  great 
interest,  feeling  that  it  involved  a  gross  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  defendant  to  defeat  justice  by  technicalities 
of  law.  In  this  case  it  was  not  till  after  long  and  anxious 
arguments  that  he  succeeded  in  convincing  his  brother 
judges  that  they  had  a  discretion  in  the  matter,  and 
were  not  absolutely  bound  down  by  the  rigid  rules  of 
the  Common  Law  to  allow  further  resistance  to  a  just 
claim,  which  would  have  involved  the  claimant  in  vexa- 
tious and  costly,  perhaps  ruinously  costly,  litigation. 
Having  at  length  brought  them  round,  judgment  was 
given  in  accordance  with  his  views.  This  was  on 
February  26. 

This  act  of  justice,  the  last  in  which  he  took  part 
as  a  judge,  having  been  accomplished,  he  felt  that  his 
work  was  finished :  he  had  nothing  further  to  wait  for, 
and,  on  February  28  he  placed  his  formal  resignation  in 
the  hands  of  the  Prime  Minister  (Lord  John  Russell). 

During  the  period  that  had  elapsed  between  his  deter- 
mination to  resign  and  his  actual  resignation,  he  had 
been  engaged  in  an  unpleasant  correspondence  with  the 
Prime  Minister  on  the  subject  of  his  successor,  who, 
greatly  to  his  surprise  and  vexation,  was,  he  found,  to 
be  Lord  Campbell. 

Campbell,  by  his  whole  conduct  of  the  case  of  Stock- 
dale  v.  Hansard,  and  of  the  controversies  thence  arising, 
had  given  considerable  annoyance  to  Denman;  but  he 
had  still  more  aroused  his  indignation  by  insinuating  in 
some  of  his  subsequent  publications,1  that  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  by  his  proceed- 
ings in  Stockdale  v.  Hansard,  had  not  only  wantonly 
hazarded  the  bringing  about  a  collision  between  rival 
authorities  in  the  State,  but  had,  moreover,  set  aside 

1  As  in  "  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  134,  148-164,  and  166 
(Holt's  Life),  and  "Lives  of  the  Chancellors,"  vol.  i.  p.  373. 


1850.]     LORD  JOHN   RUSSELL'S  LETTER.          229 

legal  doctrines  which  had  been  revered  for  ages,  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  securing  popularity  by  a  clap-trap  dis- 
play of  uncalled-for  heroism. 

That  the  passages  in  Campbell's  books  relied  upon  as 
involving  these  imputations,  were  indiscreet,  offensive, 
and  in  exceedingly  bad  taste,  may  readily  be  admitted, 
but  it  appears  very  questionable  whether  Denman's  pro- 
test was  not,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  almost  equally  ill- 
advised.  Had  not  the  illness  under  which  he  was 
laboring  somewhat  clouded  the  clearness  of  his  judg- 
ment, and  increased  to  a  morbid  extent  his  nervous 
irritability,  he  would  probably  not  have  permitted  him- 
self to  take  a  step  which,  though  called  forth  by  strong 
provocation,  and  dictated  by  a  high  and  imperious 
sense  of  duty,  was  certainly  not  characterized  by  that 
fine  tact  and  dignified  self-respect  which  had  generally 
been  shown  so  conspicuously  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  his  judicial  career. 

It  would  have  been  more  pleasing  to  have  passed  over 
this  incident  altogether  without  notice,  but  as  that 
would  hardly  be  consistent  with  the  duty  of  presenting 
an  impartial  record  of  his  life,  the  next  best  course  seems 
to  be  to  dismiss  it  with  little  more  than  the  simple  state- 
ment that  such  a  remonstrance  was  made,  and  made  in 
effectually. 

The  line  taken  by  Lord  John  Russell  is  stated  and  ex 
plained  in  a  letter  written  by  him  after  the  receipt  of 
Denman's  first  protest,  which  contained  an  intimation 
that  he  was  preparing,  and  would  soon  send,  as  he  after- 
wards did,  a  fuller  and  more  detailed  statement  of  his 
reasons  for  objecting  to  the  appointment.  This  letter 
of  the  Prime  Minister,  which  appears  to  be  as  judicious 
in  sentiment  as  it  is  kindly  and  appreciative  in  tone, 
runs  thus : 

"  Downing  Street :  January  29,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Lord  Denman, — The  Lord  Chancellor  told 
me  on  Saturday,  in  answer  to  a  question  of  mine,  what 
had  passed  between  you  and  him.  He  had  previously 
given  me  his  opinion  that,  in  the  event  of  your  being 
unable  to  resume  your  seat  on  the  Bench,  Lard  Camp- 
bell would  be  the  fittest  person  to  succeed  you. 

"  I  mentioned  to  the  Queen  this  opinion,  supporting 


230  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN. 

it  by  my  own,  but  of  course  have  not  taken  any  formal 
steps. 

"  Since  your  conversation  with  the  Chancellor  I  have 
referred  to  the  life  of  Lord  Holt  [in  Campbell's  "  Lives 
of  the  Chief  Justices"]  which  I  had  not  previously  read. 

"  I  do  not  think  that  the  passages  you  refer  to  are 
written  in  a  becoming  spirit  towards  the  Judges  of  the 
Queen's  Bench.  No  one  can  be  more  persuaded  than  I 
am  that  in  the  decisions  given  on  Privilege,  as  on  all 
other  cases,  none  but  a  conscientious  sense  of  duty  was 
allowed  to  prevail.  I  wish,  therefore,  Lord  Campbell 
had  not  expressed  himself  in  a  manner  that  may  be  con- 
sidered offensive  by  the  present  Judges  of  the  Queen's 
Bench. 

"  At  the  same  time,  writings  as  well  as  speeches1  may 
be  ill-advised  and  yet  not  of  weight  enough  to  counter- 
balance superior  merit. 

"  You  may  consider,  therefore,  that  it  is  unnecessary 
to  make  a  more  full  statement  of  your  views  on  the 
subject  of  Lord  Campbell. 

"  Especially,  I  should  say,  if  you  would  allow  me  to  do 
so,  that  your  name  stands  already  high  among  all  classes 
in  this  country  as  a  model  of  uprightness  and  independ- 
ence in  the  judicial  office.  If,  as  I  infer,  you  are  about 
to  resign,  it  would  surely  be  better  to  carry  an  undivided 
homage  with  you  in  your  retirement  than  to  raise  a 
question  as  to  your  successor,  in  which  many  may  think 
you  right,  but  many  others  may  think  you  wrong. 

"  I  have  written  this  letter  in  full  confidence  in  your 
attributing  it  to  no  other  than  good  motives  and  a 
sincere  regard  for  yourself. 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  Lord  Denman, 

"  Very  truly  yours, 
J.  RUSSELL." 

The  fact  is  that  the  real  objections  to  Lord  Campbell 
as  a  successor  to  Lord  Denman  were  of  a  kind  not  very 
easy  for  the  latter  to  state.  They  were  not  so  much  his 

1  Denman  in  his  letter  had  only  complained  of  "  writings"  the  addi- 
tional word  "speeches,"  introduced  by  Lord  John,  no  doubt  conveyed  a 
covert  allusion — more  noto  Johannis  nostri — to  Denman's  own  speeches  on 
the  Queen's  trial,  which  had  been  justly  held  no  bar  to  his  appointment  as 
Chief  Justice. 


1850.]  RESIGNATION     ACCEPTED.  231 

indulgence  in  a  few  offensive  insinuations  in  his  books, 
or  sneers  in  his  conversation.  They  were  rather  these  : 
that  he  had  always  been  a  self-seeker ;  that  the  tone  of 
his  character  was  wanting  in  elevation,  and  his  bearing 
ileficient  in  that  lofty  self-respect  and  dignified  courtesy 
which  had  so  graced  his  predecessor.  But  these  objec- 
tions, though  neither  trifling  nor  unfounded,  could  not 
seriously  be  put  in  competition  against  Campbell's  over- 
poweringly  strong  claims  on  the  Whig  party,  or  against 
those  qualities  which  nobody  denied  him  to  possess,  and 
with  which  the  litigants  in  his  Court  were  more  immedi- 
ately and  practically  concerned — extensive  legal  learning, 
ready  acuteness,  sound  judgment,  and  indefatigable 
industry.1 

The  formal  resignation,  which,  as  already  stated,  had 
been  sent  in  to  the  Premier  on  February  28,  was  accepted 
by  him  on  March  I — on  which  day,  after  a  service  of 
seventeen  years  and  nearly  four  months,  Lord  Denman 
ceased  to  be  Chief  Justice  of  England. 

1  It  should  be  recorded  to  the  credit  of  Lord  Campbell  that,  immediately 
on  Lord  Denman's  resignation,  he  offered  to  continue  the  eldest  son  in 
the  lucrative  office  of  Marshal  and  Associate — an  offer  that  was  not 
accepted.  The  note  making  the  offer  was  written  from  Stratheden  House, 
March  3,  1850,  and  ran  thus  : — 

"  Dear  Mr.  Denman — I  beg  the  favor  of  you  to  continue  in  the  office  of 
Marshal  and  Associate.  If  you  kindly  consent  to  do  so,  perhaps  you  will 
have  the  goodness  to  call  here,  that  we  may  make  some  arrangements  for 
the  circuit. 

"  Yours,  very  faithfully, 

"  CAMPBELL." 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

ADDRESSES  ON  RESIGNATION  AND  CORRESPONDENCE. 
A.  D.  1850.    MT.  71. 

NO  sooner  was  Lord  Denman's  retirement  made 
generally  known  than  he  became  the  object  of 
one  of  those  national  demonstrations  which  are 
rare  in  England,  and  are  only  accorded  to  those  who  in 
their  public  career  have  called  forth,  not  only  the  respect 
and  veneration,  but  also  the  love  of  their  countrymen. 

The  homage  paid  to  him  was,  in  the  happy  phrase 
of  Lord  John  Russell's  lately  cited  letter,  an  "  undivided 
homage." 

The  Press  was  unanimous  in  doing  justice  to  his  great 
qualities,  in  tributes  whose  eloquence  and  warmth 
of  feeling  were  worthy  of  the  illustrious  magistrate 
they  honored ;  and  all  those  orders  and  associations 
of  men  with  whom,  in  the  exercise  of  his  high  functions, 
he  had  been  more  or  less  connected,  vied  one  with 
another  in  presenting  to  him  addresses,  which  were  not 
merely  formal  tokens  of  respect,  but  the  genuine  expres- 
sion of  real  and  deep  sentiments  of  reverence  and  regard. 

The  Bar  of  Westminster  Hall,  represented  by  the 
Attorney-General,  then  Sir  John  Jervis,1  the  Bars  of 
the  Midland  and  Home  Circuits,  the  Judges  of  the 
Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  the  Corporation  of  the  City 
of  London  (whose  freedom  had  been  presented  to  him 
at  the  close  of  the  Queen's  trial,  and  with  which  he 
had  been  so  honorably  connected  as  Common  Ser- 

1  A  singularly  able  man,  who,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  ought  to  have 
succeeded  Lord  Denman  as  Chief  Justice  of  England.  He  became,  before 
the  close  of  1850,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  but  died  prematurely 
six  years  afterwards  :  born  1802  ;  called  to  the  Bar,  1824  ;  Solicitor  and 
Attorney-General,  1846'  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  1850;  died. 
1856. 


iSso.J     ADDRESSES    ON    RESIGNATION.  233 

geant) ;  the  Corporation  of  Nottingham  (the  borough 
he  had  so  long  represented  in  Parliament),  the  Grand 
Jury  of  his  native  county  of  Derby,  and  those  of  the 
counties  of  Northampton,  Nottingham,  Lincoln,  Leices- 
ter, Warwick,  and  Kent,  not  to  mention  many  others  of 
all  orders  and  classes,  were  among  those  who,  on  this 
occasion,  forwarded  addresses  to  him. 

The  greater  part  of  these  addresses,  together  with 
Lord  Denman's  replies,  will  be  found  collected  in  the 
Appendix;1  those  of  the  Attorney-General,  of  the  gen- 
tlemen of  his  native  county,  of  the  City  of  London,  and 
of  his  brother  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench, 
may  be  selected  for  insertion  here. 

Owing  to  Lord  Denman's  having  already  sent  in  his 
resignation,  and  being,  therefore,  unable  to  appear  in 
Court,  the  address  of  the  Attorney-General  was  not 
oral,  but  written.  It  ran  thus: 

"  Temple  :  March  i,  1850. 

"  My  Lord, — I  should  have  desired  in  open  Court, 
before  the  profession  and  the  public,  to  give  utterance 
to  the  regret  of  the  Bar  that  illness  compels  your  Lord- 
ship to  resign  the  high  office  you  have  so  long  filled  with 
distinguished  honor  to  yourself  and  eminent  advantage 
to  your  country. 

"  I  may  thus,  however,  be  allowed  to  convey  the  ex- 
pression of  our  feelings,  and  to  assure  your  Lordship 
that  the  learning,  the  impartiality,  the  high  sense  of 
honor,  the  firmness  and  the  dignity  which  marked  and 
ennobled  your  administration  of  justice,  have  always 
commanded  admiration  and  respect ;  while  every  prac- 
titioner in  your  Lordship's  court  bears  grateful  testi- 
mony to  the  kindness  and  the  courtesy  that  endeared 
you  to  us  all. 

"  We  are  sensible  that  failing  health  and  advancing 
years  entitle  your  Lordship  to  lay  aside  the  arduous 
duties  of  the  judge;  but  we  pray  that  you  may  be 
blessed  with  vigor  to  enjoy  the  leisure  you  have  justly 
earned,  and  to  devote  to  the  public  service  the  patriotism 
and  the  eloquence  already  so  conspicuous  in  the  annals 
of  Parliament. 

"  In  the  evening  of  an    eventful  life,  your  Lordship 

1  See  Appendix  VI. 


234  LIFE    OF    LORD     DENMAN.  [1850. 

will  carry  with  you  into  retirement  the  affectionate 
sympathies  of  every  member  of  the  profession,  and  will 
reap  some  reward  for  your  labors  in  the  knowledge  that 
you  will  long  live  in  their  memory,  an  example  to 
applaud  and  emulate. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  my  Lord,  with  sentiments 
of  sincere  respect  and  affection, 

"  Your  Lordship's  faithful  servant, 

"  JOHN  JERVIS." 

Lord  Denman's  reply  was  as  follows  : 

"  38  Portland  Place :   March  I,  1850. 

"  Dear  Mr.  Attorney, — I  receive,  with  the  highest  sat- 
isfaction, your  kind  letter,  expressing  your  own  senti- 
ments, and  those  of  the  Bar  in  general,  on  my  retirement 
from  office. 

"  If  I  have  merited  in  any  degree  your  valuable  ap- 
probation, I  am  conscious  that  mainly  it  must  be 
ascribed  to  the  learning,  liberality,  and  candor,  by  which 
you  and  your  brethren  rendered  the  performance  of  my 
laborious  duties  during  so  many  years  both  easy  and  de- 
lightful. 

"  Fully  aware  of  my  many  deficiencies  in  other  re- 
spects, I  yet  will  not  disclaim  the  praise  of  a  constant 
and  earnest  endeavor  to  discover  truth  and  promote 
justice  ;  and,  it  is  my  pride  to  feel,  that,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  my  excellent  colleagues,  I  have  not  failed  in  my 
anxious  wish  to  sustain  and  even  elevate  the  character 
of  the  English  Bar. 

"Among  the  many  consolations  which  support  me  in 
taking  this  painful  step,  none  will  be  more  effectual  than 
to  witness  the  increasing  prosperity  and  honor  of  the 
profession,  which  you  so  worthily  represent. 

"  With  every  feeling  of  esteem  and  respect  towards 
yourself, 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  Mr.  Attorney, 

"  Your  faithful  and  obedient  servant. 

"  DENMAN." 

The  address  from  the  gentlemen  serving  on  the  Grand 
Jury  of  his  native  county  of  Derby,  was  in  these  words: 
"  To  the  Right  Hon.  Thomas,  Lord  Denman. 

"  Grand  Jury  Room,  Derby  :   March  21,  1850. 

"  We,  the  High  Sheriff  and  Grand  Jurors  of  the  County 


1850.]      ADDRESSES    ON   RESIGNATION.  235 

of  Derby,  beg  to  express  to  your  Lordship  our  deep  re- 
gret that  the  state  of  your  health  should  have  com- 
pelled you  to  resign  your  high  office  of  Chief  Justice  of 
England. 

"  By  those  who  are  capable  of  appreciating  the  im- 
portance of  a  wise,  just,  and  dignified  administration  of 
the  law,  such  a  resignation  will  be  considered  a  great 
national  loss;  but  every  manly  and  generous  mind  must 
be  gratified  by  the  reflection  that  your  retirement  is  ac- 
companied by  all  the  consolations  that  a  good  man  can 
desire — the  consciousness  of  having  discharged  all  the 
duties  of  this  great  trust  with  the  strictest  integrity,  and 
the  full  assurance  that  a  grateful  public  will  do  justice  to 
a  merit  so  distinguished. 

"  The  earlier  part  of  your  professional  life,  my  Lord, 
is  remembered  by  some  of  us.  In  every  step  of  it  your 
talents  and  acquirements,  graced  by  eloquence  of  the 
highest  order,  cast  a  luster  about  you  that  never  failed 
to  charm  ;  but  it  was  by  your  sterling  integrity,  your  un- 
flinching determination  to  do  your  duty  on  all  occasions, 
and  the  noble  and  manly  sentiments  ever  animating  you, 
that  you  won  the  respect  and  admiration  of  all. 

"Your  Lordship's  life  presents  a  valuable  history, 
which  can  not  be  too  closely  and  attentively  read. 

"  It  will  stimulate  the  preparations  of  the  young  for 
the  career  they  are  about  to  run,  it  will  encourage  the 
exertions  of  those  who  have  commenced  the  race,  and, 
though  very  few  can  hope  to  reach  your  success,  all  will 
be  the  better  for  thinking  upon  and  studying  your  great 
example. 

"  Permit  us,  my  Lord,  to  say  that  it  is  no  small  source 
of  gratification  and  pride  to  us  that  you  belong  to  our 
native  county. 

"  We  beg  to  add  our  most  earnest  wishes  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  a  life  so  justly  dear  and  still  so  highly  valua- 
ble to  the  people  of  this  great  country. 

"  ROBERT  ARKWRIGHT,  High  Sheriff, 
"  HENRY  S.  WILMOT,  Foreman, 
"  And  twenty-two  other  names." 

Lord  Denman  returned  the  following  genial  and 
kindly  reply  : 

"  Gentlemen, — I  wish  I  could  think  myself  deserving 


236  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1850. 

of  the  very  high  praise  bestowed  upon  me  by  your  par- 
tiality. 

"  I  am  so  proud  of  belonging  to  your  county  that  I 
can  not  refrain  from  introducing  another  fact  which 
seems  to  give  the  finish  and  a  real  value  to  my  history. 

"  Near  a  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since  my  father 
left  his  native  town,  in  very  humble  circumstances,  and 
with  slender  means.  By  his  exertions,  during  a  long 
course  of  years,  he  was  enabled  to  afford  me  the  educa- 
tion which  advanced  me ;  and  he  instilled  those  princi- 
ples, habits,  and  tastes,  which  have  led  to  your  favorable 
estimate  of  my  services. 

"  It  is  delightful  to  know  that  the  same  process  is  at 
this  moment  going  on  in  thousands  of  English  families, 
and  that,  though  the  high  honors  must  be  confined  to 
few,  the  exertions  made  in  order  to  obtain  them,  will  be 
as  useful  and  honorable  to  the  aspirants  as  valuable  to 
the  public. 

"  Much  of  the  remainder  of  my  life  will  be  passed, 
gentlemen,  among  you,  and  nothing  can  be  more  agree- 
able to  the  grateful  object  of  your  kindness  than  his  own 
warm  appreciation  of  it,  and  his  indulgence  in  similar 
sentiments  towards  yourselves. 

"  I  remain,  most  respectfully, 

"  Your  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

"  DENMAN." 

The  following  was  the  address  from  the  Common 
Council  of  the  City  of  London : 

"  To  the  Right  Hon.   Thomas,  Lord  Denman,  late  Lord 
Chief  Justice  of  England. 

"  My  Lord, — The  Lord  Mayor/  Aldermen  and  Com- 
mons of  the  City  of  London,  in  Common  Council 
assembled,  respectfully  desire  to  express  to  your  Lord- 
ship their  regret  that  the  state  of  your  health  has 
induced  your  Lordship  to  resign  the  high  office  of  Lord 
Chief  Justice  of  England. 

"  Many  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  citizens  of 
London,  through  their  representatives  in  the  Common 
Council,  had  the  great  satisfaction  of  offering  to  your 

1  Farncomb. 


iSso.J       ADDRESSES   ON   RESIGNATION.  237 

Lordship  their  congratulations  upon  your  advancement 
to  that  great  office. 

"  From  a  long  experience  of  your  estimable  qualities 
during  the  period  of  your  connection  with  the  City  in 
the  office  of  Common  Sergeant,  and  from  the  interest 
which  they  had  thence  been  led  to  take  in  your  Lord- 
ship's welfare,  the  most  favorable  anticipations  and 
ardent  wishes  were  then  expressed  that  you  might  be 
able  to  discharge  your  duties  as  Chief  Justice  with  honor 
to  yourself  and  with  benefit  to  the  country. 

"  That  these  wishes  and  anticipations  have,  through 
the  long  period  during  which  you  have  presided  over  the 
administration  of  justice,  been  most  fully  realized  is,  we 
rejoice  to  find,  the  general  feeling  of  the  nation,  while  to 
us  it  has  proved  a  source  of  the  most  heartfelt  satisfaction. 

"  Truly,  my  Lord,  do  we  feel  that  highly  as  the  office 
of  Chief  Justice  of  England  has  ever  been  esteemed,  it 
has  acquired  fresh  honor  and  distinction  from  the  manner 
in  which  you  have  discharged  its  duties  and  sustained 
its  dignity,  faithfully  and  courageously  asserting  the 
supremacy  of  the  law,  and  the  independence  and  purity 
of  its  administration,  on  all  occasions  and  in  every 
emergency. 

"  Some  there  are,  my  Lord,  still  amongst  us  who  have 
witnessed  with  pride  your  Lordship's  progress,  from  the 
time  of  your  first  connection  with  the  City  of  London, 
and  from  a  much  earlier  period,  and  all  of  us  now  unite 
in  the  expression  of  regret  for  a  cause  which  deprives 
the  country  of  your  valuable  services,  and  in  an  earnest 
wish  that  through  a  lengthened  period  of  improved 
health  your  Lordship  may  enjoy  the  satisfaction  arising 
from  the  remembrance  of  duties  of  the  highest  import- 
ance ably  and  faithfully  discharged. 

"  MEREWETHER." 

To  this  address  Lord  Denman  returned  a  reply,  in 
the  course  of  which,  referring  to  his  illustrious  prede- 
cessor as  a  City  Judge  and  Chief  Justice,  Lord  Holt, 
he  said  : 

"  I  felt  that  I  could  only  hope  to  emulate  his  fame  by 
following  his  example,  and  forced  against  my  will,  into 
circumstances  closely  resembling  those  in  which  he  was 
placed,  I  found  in  his  conduct  a  perfect  precedent  for  my 


2.-S  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1850. 

own.  Like  him,  I  asserted  the  majesty  of  the  law,  and 
the  sacred  principles  of  constitutional  freedom,  happier  in 
this  alone,  that,  whereas  he  had  the  misfortune  to  differ 
from  his  brother  judges,  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiv- 
ing the  unanimous  concurrence  of  judges  as  learned  and 
conscientious  as  ever  adorned  the  bench  of  Westminster 
Hall." 

Lord  Dcnman,  in  a  separate  reply  to  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  Aldermen,  who,  in  a  Court  held  on  March  26,  had 
separately  passed  a  resolution  to  his  honor,  again  refers 
to  what  he  always  considered — as  in  this  reply  he  calls 
it — the  most  important  event  of  his  life,  the  course  he 
took  in  the  case  of  Stockdale  v,  Hansard.  As  this  reply 
is  very  much  to  the  same  purpose  as  that  to  the  Common 
Council,  and  has  the  advantage  of  being  expressed  with 
more  terseness  and  energy,  it  will  be  as  well  to  reprint  it 
here,  leaving  the  other  to  the  Appendix. 

"  To  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  London. 

"  My  Lord  and  Gentlemen, —  From  the  moment  when 
I  first  had  the  honor  of  sitting  as  a  judge  beside  the 
magistrates  of  London,  to  the  present,  when  I  have  to 
acknowledge  the  approbation  with  which  you  crown  my 
last  labors,  I  have  experienced  the  utmost  kindness  from 
you.  I  beg  leave  to  offer  my  cordial  thanks  for  this  and 
every  other  instance  of  it. 

"  The  judicial  offices  which  your  corporation  has  the 
privilege  of  appointing  impose  a  severe  burden  upon  the 
holders. 

"  In  former  times  the  eminent  men  who  have  occupied 
the  highest  stations  of  the  law  had  previously  acted  as 
City  judges. 

"  The  most  virtuous  of  Chancellors,  Sir  Thomas  More, 
was  Common  Sergeant  of  London.  Sir  Edward  Coke 
and  others  performed,  as  Recorders  of  London,  some 
part  of  the  duties  of  Chief  Justice  before  they  filled  that 
office. 

"The  greatest  of  them  all,  in  my  opinion,  was  Chief 
Justice  Holt,  your  Recorder,  and  by  his  great  example  I 
always  endeavored  to  regulate  my  judicial  course. 

"  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  most 
important  decision  in  which  I  have  taken  part  was  in 


1850.]        ADDRESSES    ON    RESIGNATION.        239 

exact  accordance  to  his  declared  opinion  :  from  that 
opinion,  indeed,  his  brethren  dissented,  but  the  majority 
of  the  judges  and  a  great  majority  of  the  Lords,  with 
Lord  Somers  at  their  head,  established  his  doctrine  as 
true. 

"  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  assert  the  same  doctrine 
with  the  full  concurrence  of  my  brethren,  and,  with  every 
disposition  to  cavil  at  our  judgment,  that  judgment 
v/as  never  questioned  in  a  Court  of  Error. 

"  Forgive  my  alluding  to  this,  the  most  important 
event  of  my  life,  and  the  most  nearly  affecting  my 
judicial  reputation. 

"  I  beseech  you  to  accept  my  sincere  wishes  for  your 
prosperity  and  welfare  as  individuals,  and  that,  under 
your  guardianship,  the  honor  and  happiness  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  great  metropolis  may  ever  be  secured 
and  advanced. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  remain,  my  Lord  and  gentlemen, 
your  attached  and  grateful  servant, 

"  DENMAN. 

"  March  28,  1850." 

The  following  letter  from  the  Judges  of  the  Queen's 
Bench  (in  the  well-known  handwriting  of  his  friend 
Patteson)  must  have  given  Denman  the  sincerest 
gratification : 

"  Dear  Lord  Denman, — We  trust  you  will  accept  the 
accompanying  token  of  our  regard,1  which  has  its  prin- 
cipal value  in  the  affectionate  sincerity  with  which  it  i.s 
offered. 

"  It  has  given  us  much  pleasure  to  see  you  receiving, 
from  time  to  time  since  your  retirement,  repeated  testi- 
monials of  the  love  and  respect  which  you  have  justly 
earned  by  your  discharge  for  so  many  years  of  the  high 
and  difficult  duties  of  your  great  office.  Perhaps  you 
will  think  that  no  persons  can  estimate  so  accurately  as 
ourselves  how  well  you  have  deserved  them.  And  we 
do  desire  to  bear  sincere  and  considerate  testimony  to  the 
learning,  good  sense  and  ability,  the  industry  and 
uprightness,  the  candor,  patience,  dignity  and  good 

1  An  inkstand,  with  a  choice  inscription  (auctore  Coleridge) :  three  years 
afterwards  this  valuable  heirloom  was  stolen  from  Lord  Denman's  study  at 
Stony  Middleton,  but,  to  his  great  joy,  after  some  weeks  recovered  again. 


240  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN  [1850. 

temper,  with  which  you   have  adorned  the  Bench  on 
which  we  have  had  the  happines  to  sit  as  your  assistants. 

"  But  we  are  bound  to  add  to  this,  our  gratitude  for 
the  uniform  kindness  which  individually  we  have  expe- 
rienced at  your  hands ;  the  hearty  acceptance  which 
you  have  ever  given  to  such  assistance  as  it  was  our 
duty  and  in  our  power  to  afford  you  ;  and  the  delightful 
friendliness,  without  change  or  diminution  at  any  time, 
which  has  shed  a  peculiar  charm  on  our  private  inter- 
course. By  these  we  have  been  made,  we  trust,  more 
useful  servants  to  the  public,  as,  we  are  sure,  we  have 
been  able  to  enjoy  our  few  leisure  hours  more  perfectly. 

"You  may  well  believe  how  deeply  we  regret  that  we 
are  no  longer  to  labor  together.  Long  may  you  be 
spared,  peacefully  and  happily  to  adorn  and  enjoy  the 
leisure  which  you  have  so  well  earned ;  and  may  we  be 
permitted  still,  from  time  to  time,  the  pleasure  of  our 
old  friendly  intercourse  ;  and  at  all  times  may  we  retain 
that  place  in  your  affection  with  which  we  venture  to 
believe  you  have  hitherto  honored  us. 

"  We  remain,  dear  Lord  Denman, 

"  With  the  sincerest  esteem  and  regard, 

"  Your  affectionate  friends, 
"  J.  PATTESON.  WM.  WIGHTMAN. 

"  J.  T.  COLERIDGE.       W.  ERLE. 

"April  15,  1850." 

Denman's  reply  was  as  follows: 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — I  have  received,  with  feelings 
that  defy  expression,  the  precious  gift  you  have  pre- 
sented to  me  for  yourself  and  my  other  late  colleagues 
of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench. 

"  This  testimony  is  far  more  valuable  than  any  other 
can  possibly  be,  not  only  for  the  reason  given  by  your- 
selves— your  greater  opportunity  of  observing  my  judi- 
cial conduct — but  from  your  own  superior  power  of 
forming  a  true  judgment.  Much  must,  indeed,  be  allowed 
for  your  partiality,  but  that  partiality  itself  confers  the 
highest  honor.  Such  a  testimony,  borne  by  such  men, 
after  an  intimate  connection  of  many  years  in  the  dis- 
charge of  the  duties  we  have  performed  together,  is  the 
most  valuable  tribute  that  can  be  paid  to  a  retiring 
judge. 


iSso.J     ADDRESSES    ON    RESIGNATION.  241 

"  I  will  not  affect  now  to  offer  any  apology  for  the 
IT  any  occasional  shortcomings  and  defects  of  which  I 
lu.ve  been  too  painfully  conscious.  As  these  have  left 
no  impression  on  your  minds,  they  ought  not  to  disturb 
in  mine  the  perfect  satisfaction  that  your  kind  words 
impart.  But  \  should  be  wanting  in  gratitude  and  jus- 
tice if  I  omitted  to  avow  my  great  obligation  to  your 
able,  strenuous,  and  ever-ready  exertions.  Without  such 
co-operation,  I  am  convinced,  that  in  our  busy  and  ardu- 
ous time,  scarcely  any  man  could  have  adequately  sus- 
tained the  character  of  Chief  Justice  of  England.  For 
me,  I  am  quite  sure,  the  task  would  have  been  too 
heavy,  and  I  well  know  how  much  of  the  public  appro- 
bation I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  enjoy  is  to  be  as- 
scribed  to  yourselves. 

"The  cordiality  and  cheerfulness  with  which  the  as- 
sistance was  rendered,  prompted,  as  it  was,  by  the  sense 
of  duty,  was,  perhaps,  even  more  the  fruit  of  that  friend- 
ship which  it  has  ever  been  my  care  to  cultivate,  and  my 
happiness  to  secure.  I,  with  you,  feel  confident  that  it 
will  continue  during  our  lives  ;  the  remainder  of  mine 
would,  indeed,  be  a  blank  without  it. 

"  I  have  delayed  this  letter  for  some  hours,  because  I 
wished  my  eldest  son  to  be  my  amanuensis.  He  has, 
also,  often  experienced  your  kindness,  and  will  preserve 
this  token  as  the  most  valuable  possession  of  the  family. 
Its  classical  beauty  is  its  smallest  merit,  and  the  gracious 
and  kind  inscription  is  still  surpassed  by  the  admirable 
letter  that  accompanies  it. 

"  Your  grateful  and  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

"  DENMAN." 

It  was  not  only  from  the  Judges  of  his  own  Court  that 
Denman  at  this  time  received  many  valuable  assurances 
of  regard  and  affection. 

Mr.  Baron  Parke  (afterwards  Lord  Wensleydale),  was 
at  this  time  the  senior  Judge  on  the  Midland  Circuit, 
and,  as  such,  became  the  medium  of  forwarding  several 
of  the  addresses  from  the  Grand  Juries  of  the  Midland 
Counties  ;  in  forwarding  that  from  Lincoln,  he  expressed 
himself  as  follows : 

"Lincoln:  March  12,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — When  I  was  discharging  the  Grand 
in. — 16 


242  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1850. 

Jury  to-day,  the  foreman  announced  that  they  had 
unanimously  resolved  to  address  you,  and  he  read  the 
address,  and  requested  me  to  forward  it  to  you. 

"  I  promised  to  do  so,  and  added  that  I  concurred 
most  cordially  in  every  sentiment  that  it  expressed,  and 
I  told  the  truth. 

"  It  must  be  a  great  satisfaction  to  you  to  close  your 
most  distinguished  career  as  an  advocate  and  a  judge 
with  so  many  testimonies  of  respect  and  affection. 

"  Long  may  you  live  to  enjoy  your  deserved  reputation. 

"  I    received  your  message   and    saw  your    letter   to- 
Whitehurst.1     You  say  too  much  of  our  sincere  praise. 
"  Believe  me,  my  dear  Lord, 

"Most  sincerely  yours, 
"  JAMES  PARKE." 

Mr.  Justice  Talfourd,2  then  on  the  Western  Circuit,, 
expressed  his  feelings  characteristically  in  a  sonnet,  after- 
wards inserted  in  the  first  number  of  "  Household 
Words,"  and  inclosed  in  the  following  letter: 

"  Salisbury  :  March  12,  1850. 

"My  dear  Lord  Denman,— I  should  have  ventured  before 
this  to  express  my  share  in  the  universal  sentiment  which 
attends  your  parting  from  the  seat  which  never  can  be 
so  graced  again,  if  I  had  not  wished  to  try  and  embody 
it  in  the  concise  form  which  a  sonnet  gives;  and  I  have 
found  the  subject  so  utterly  beyond  such  a  space,  that  I 
have  thought  of  it  and  tried  it,  till  I  found  it  best  to- 
send  you  anything  rather  than  be  any  longer  silent. 

"It  is  a  very  feeble  attempt  to  embody  feelings  to- 
which  all  words  are  inadequate  ;  and  I  can  only  com- 
mend it  to  your  old  indulgence,  and  assure  you,  in  all 
the  sincerity  of  prose,  that  I  remain, 

"  My  dear  Lord  Denman, 
"With  fondest  wishes  for  your  happiness, 

"  Most  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 
"T.  N.  TALFOURD." 

'  In  answer  to  an  address  of  the  Bar  of  the  Midland  Circuit,  of  which-. 
Mr.  Whitehurst,  Q.  C.,  was  then  the  leader. 

2  Sir  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd  ;  bcrn  1795;  called  to  Bar,  1821  ;  Sergeant, 
1833  ;  M.  P.  for  Reading,  1835,  in  which  year  the  drama  of  "  Ion  "  was 
acted  ;  Judge  of  Common  Pleas,  1849  :  died  of  apoplexy  while  charging  the 
Grand  Jury  of  Stafford,  March  13,  1854.  Denman  was  a  warm  admirer  of 
Talfourd's  oratorical  and  dramatic  talents. 


iSso.J  LETTER     TO     TALFOURD.  243 

"  P.S. — If  you  do  not  forbid  me,  I  think  I  shall  send 
the  lines  to  our  friend  Dickens  for  his  first  number  of 
"  Household  Words ' — for  which  I  own  I  tremble." 

The  sonnet,  not  by  any  means  one  of  Talfourd'' 
happiest  efforts,  runs  thus : 

"  To  Lord  De  nman,  retiring  from  the  Chief  Justiceship 
of  England. 

"  There  is  a  solemn  rapture  in  the  hail 
With  which  a  nation  blesses  thy  repose, 
In  sense  that  it  is  deathless  ;  that  the  close 
Of  man's  extremest  age  whose  boyhood  glows 
While  pondering  o'er  thy  lineaments,  shall  fail 
To  delegate  to  cold  historic  tale 
What  Denman  was  ;  for  dignity  that  flows 
Not  in  the  moulds  of  compliment  extern, 
But  from  a  generous  spirit's  purest  urn 
Springs  vital  ;  Justice  softened,  yet  unswayed 
By  beautiful  affections  ;  thoughts  that  burn 
With  noblest  fire — for  men  who  never  saw 
Thy  form,  shall  take  its  likeness,  as  they  learn 
In  vision  clear,  the  majesty  of  law." 

Denman's  reply  was  as  follows  : 

"London:  March  14,  1850. 

"My  Dear  Talfourd, — Tenterden  said  to  John  Williams, 
on  receiving  some  of  his  Greek  compositions, 

"  Si  quali  cuperem  referre  possem 
Grseco  carmine  gratias  referrem. 

"  I  wish  I  could  return  an  answer  worthy  of  your 
beautiful  and  genial  sonnet.  I  would  express  the 
pleasure  that  an  old  man  who  has  meant  well  must  feel 
when  he  leaves  active  life  in  seeing  others  following  in 
the  track  who  will  preserve  and  extend  whatever  has 
been  praiseworthy  in  his  own  principles  and  conduct. 
The  additional  pleasure  of  receiving  from  them  exalted 
praise  for  his  endeavors  is  too  much  to  be  expected,  b  it 
c«.i  not  be  too  highly  prized. 

"  I,  like  you,  feel  a  little  nervous  when  our  friend 
Dickens  quits  the  scenes  with  which  he  is  so  happily 
familiar;1  but  if  he  thinks  your  sonnet  and  the  subject 
will  be  well  placed  in  his  new  publication,  it  will  only 

1  The  apprehensions  of  Lord  Denman  and  Talfourd  were,  as  all  the 
world  knows,  without  adequate  foundation  :  "  Household  Words  "  was  a 
great  success. 


244  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1850. 

give   me  pleasure  to  see  my  name  united  with  his  and 
yours.  "  Ever  very  sincerely  yours, 

"  DENMAN." 

Wightman,  writing  from  Norwich,  on  April  7,  1850, 
sums  up,  with  characteristic  clearness  and  accuracy,  the 
effect  and  value  of  the  universal  testimony. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — However  deeply  we  and  all  who 
know  you,  as  well  as  the  public,  feel  our  loss  in  your 
retirement,  I  am  not  sure  but  that,  for  your  sake,  we 
ought  to  rejoice  at  it,  for  otherwise  you  yourself  would 
never  have  known  how  great  and  universal  was  the  love 
and  respect  entertained  for  you.  Chief  Justices  have 
retired  before  now,  but  I  am  not  aware  of  any  instance 
in  which  so  much  and  such  universal  regret  and  sym- 
pathy have  been  shown." 

Denman  was  much  gratified  by  a  letter  written  about 
this  time  to  his  son  George  (now  Mr.  Justice  Denman) 
by  that  accomplished  scholar,  Mr.  John  Leycester 
Adolphus,  who,  in  conjunction  with  the  late  Thomas 
Flower  Ellis,  had  for  a  period  of  many  years  been  legal 
reporter  in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench.1  Mr.  Adolphus 
was  a  Tory  of  the  old  school,  and  his  testimony,  on  that 
very  account,  and  also  owing  to  the  singularly  reticent 
and  undemonstrative  nature  of  the  writer,  was  regarded 
by  Lord  Denman  as  additionally  valuable.  The  occasion 
of  the  letter  being  written  is  explained  in  the  letter 
itself: 

"  16  Montague  Place  :  April  23,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Denman, — I  am  very  much  obliged,  should 
say  flattered,  if  it  did  not  seem  formal,  by  your  sending 
me  a  copy  of  the  Home  Circuit  poem.3  It  does  much 
honor  to  the  circuit  and  justice  to  Lord  Denman.  The 
lines  at  the  beginning  of  p.  6  are  a  portrait  to  be  treas- 
ured up:  the  electrical,  instinctive  righteousness  which 
they  describe  was,  in  many  instances  which  I  remember, 
as  beneficial  to  public  justice  as  it  was  noble  in  its 
momentary  effect. 

1  Born  1793;  Newdegate  prize  poem,  subject,  "  Niobe,"  Oxford,  1814; 
second  class  classics,  1815  ;  writer,  in  1820,  of  a  much  talked  of  pamphlet 
proving  Scott  to  be  the  author  of  the  Waverley  Novels ;  Reporter  in  Court  of 
Queen's  Bench  for  many  years  and  County  Court  Judge  ;  died  1868. 

8  Printed  in  Appendix  at  end  of  the  addresses. 


1850.]      LETTER    FROM   J.    L.    ADOLPHUS.      245 

"  Mine  is  the  testimony  of  a  Tory,  and  there  may  be 
an  expression  or  two  in  the  verses  which  I  flinch  from — 
but,  on  the  whole,  I  should  perhaps  have  made  the 
panegyric  stronger  rather  than  weaker,  even  with  refer- 
ence to  the  subject  of  politics.  On  the  question 
of  the  '  Senate,'  I  agree  in  thinking  that  he  had  the 
dignity  of  being  not  only  bold,  but  thoroughly  in  the 
right. 

"  Perhaps  a  dissentient  as  to  general  politics  may  feel 
more  strongly  than  the  writer  of  these  lines,  who  has 
hardly  particularized  it  enough,  the  unblemished  purity 
from  all  tincture  of  party  which  was  so  great  a  character- 
istic of  Lord  Denman  s  CJiief  Justiceship.  Ready  enough 
I  should  have  been  to  mark  any  fault  in  that  respect, 
and  sorry  enough  I  was,  from  political  prepossession, 
when  Sir  Thomas  Denman  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
our  Court.  This  may  be  said  without  scruple,  even  to 
you,  when  I  can  add  that  I  was  still  more  sorry  when 
he  was  obliged  to  leave  it. 

"  I  do  not  personally  know  the  writer  of  the  lines,  but 
envy  him  the  opportunity  and  ability,  and  join  him 
heartily  in  the  prayer  with  which  he  concludes.  And 
will  you  let  me  convey  through  you,  most  warmly  and 
respectfully,  the  same  good  wishes  to  Lord  Denman 
himself,  whenever  you  can  conveniently  mention  them. 
"  Believe  me,  dear  Denman, 

"  Very  truly  yours, 
"j.  L.  ADOLPHUS." 

It  was  not  in  England  only  that  Lord  Denman,  on  his 
retirement,  received  the  "  undivided  homage  "  of  all  or- 
ders of  men ;  in  America,  also,  his  distinguished  career 
had  been  watched  with  the  highest  interest  by  the  many 
eminent  jurists  who  then  adorned  the  Bar  and  the  Bench 
in  the  United  States.  The  venerable  Chancellor  Kent, 
Mr.  Justice  Story,  and  many  other  celebrated  American 
lawyers,  had,  as  has  been  seen,  from  time  to  time  com- 
municated to  him  valuable  expressions  of  sympathy  and 
regard,  and  now  he  had  the  gratification  of  receiving 
from  the  accomplished  diplomatist,  writer,  and  orator, 
Mr.  Edward  Everett,  late  Minister  of  the  United  States 
at  the  Court  of  St.  James',  the  following  graceful  tribute 
of  national  esteem  and  personal  affection  : 


246  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1850. 

"  Cambridge,  U.  S. :    May  14,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Lord  Denman, — I  can  not  deny  myself 
the  satisfaction  of  recalling  myself  to  your  recollec- 
tion, for  the  sake  of  tendering  you,  from  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  that  tribute  of  respect  which  has  been  so 
largely  paid  you  at  home  on  the  occasion  of  your  retire- 
ment. 

"  You  know  so  well  the  professional  community  that 
exists  between  the  two  countries,  that  you  will  not  be 
surprised  to  learn  that  we  watch  the  movements  of  per- 
sons like  yourself  with  scarcely  less  interest  than  if  they 
were  our  countrymen  ;  while,  for  reasons  not  necessary 
to  be  stated,  your  own  course  as  a  statesman  and  a  mag- 
istrate, and,  in  both  capacities,  as  a  great  assertor  of 
liberal  principles,  has  probably  commanded  a  more 
unanimous  sympathy  in  the  United  States  than  even  in 
your  own  England. 

"  The  personal  obligation  I  owe  to  you  and  Lady  Den- 
man for  the  numerous  friendly  attentions  with  which 
you  honored  us  during  our  residence  in  England  makes 
me  peculiarly  desirous  of  expressing  to  you,  on  this 
occasion,  my  warm  feelings  of  respectful  attachment,  and 
my  fervent  wishes  that  your  long  and  honored  career  of 
active  duty  may  be  crowned  with  many  years  of  serene 
and  happy  age. 

"  My  dutiful  compliments  to  Lady  Denman,  in  which 
Mrs.  Everett  begs  to  join  me. 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  Lord  Denman, 

"  Most  faithfully  yours, 

"EDWARD  EVERETT." 

Lord  Denman's  answer  was  as  follows: 

"  London  :   June  3,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Everett, — Your  letter  demands  my  warm- 
est thanks,  evincing  the  greatest  kindness,  and  exciting 
the  liveliest  satisfaction. 

"  That  the  approbation  of  my  judicial  career,  so  favor- 
ably viewed  by  my  own  countrymen,  should  be  echoed 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  by  your  enlightened 
Bar,  that  my  general  public  conduct  should  be  so  kindly 
appreciated  in  the  United  States,  and  that  the  judg- 
ments should  receive  your  sanction,  biased,  perhaps,  by 
your  friendship,  which  is,  however,  itself  a  distinguished 


1850.]     DEN  MAN  AT  STONY  MIDDLETON.       247 

honor, — this  combination  confers  on  your  letter  an  in- 
estimable value  in  my  eyes. 

"  I  hope  that  you  may  be  called  upon  to  return  to  this 
country,  where  no  one  will  rejoice  more  than  myself 
in  renewing  a  friendly  intercourse  with  you  and  your 
family. 

"  Lady  Denman  desires  to  join  in  these  sentiments 
"  With  your  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

"  DENMAN." 

The  force  and  freshness,  the  grace  and  variety  of  the 
answers  dictated  by  Lord  Denman  to  the  great  and 
almost  embarrassing  mass  of  the  letters  and  addresses  he 
at  this  time  received,  showed  that  the  disease  which  had 
so  severely  shaken  his  bodily  powers  had  left  his  mental 
faculties  comparatively  untouched.  He  had  not  suffi- 
ciently recovered  the  use  of  his  hand  to  be  able  to  write 
any  of  the  answers  which  he  composed  with  so  much 
felicity  and  ease;  rest  and  repose  were  still  most  needful 
to  him,  and  after  a  brief  sojourn  in  London,  he  retired 
for  the  summer  and  autumn  to  solace  himself  among 
his  plantations  and  improvements  in  Stony  Middleton, 
with  the  pleasures  of  literature  and  the  affectionate  so- 
ciety of  his  wife,  children  and  grandchildren. 

In  this  calm  and  cheerful  retreat  he  made  steady  pro- 
gress towards  a  temporary  recovery,  and  gradually  re- 
gained the  command  of  his  pen,  though  the  act  of 
writing  continued  throughout  the  whole  of  this  year  to 
be  a  work  of  labor  and  difficulty — a  circumstance  which 
sufficiently  accounts  for  the  rarity  of  his  correspondence. 

On  October  18,  1850,  the  forty-sixth  anniversary  of 
his  wedding-day,  he  wrote  with  his  own  hand  the  follow- 
ing verses  to  his  wife,  which  have  been  preserved  by  the 
pious  care  of  his  daughter,  Lady  Baynes,  to  whom  he 
gave  them  after  her  mother's  death.  They  possess  a 
simple  and  touching  pathos,  which  will  probably  speak 
to  the  hearts  of  all : 

"  October  18,  1850. 
"  Full  six  and  forty  years  have  flown 
Since  first  I  claimed  you  for  my  own  ; 
You  trusted  then  your  youthful  charms 
To  an  adoring  husband's  amis. 
Well  saw  he  with  those  charms  combined 
The  upright,  generous,  feeling  mind  ; 


248  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1850. 

The  noble  nature's  inborn  grace, 
The  soul,  e'en  lovelier  than  the  face. 
Well  did  you  keep  Affection's  vow, 
Precious  when  made,  far  dearer  now. 
In  that  long  maze  of  varied  years, 
Of  joys  and  sorrows,  hopes  and  fears, 
Though  oft  a  cloud  perplexed  the  view, 
Love  never  failed  to  guide  us  through. 
Downward  we  pace,  but  hand-in-hand— 
Hope  tells  us  of  that  happy  land 
Where  tumults,  pain,  and  sorrow  cease, 
That  land  of  harmony  and  peace — 
A  house  not  made  with  hands,  endeared 
By  all  we  cherished  or  revered  ; — 
The  aged,  who  sunk  in  ripe  decay, 
The  buds  in  childhood  plucked  away, 
The  future  haven  to  receive 
The  dear  ones  we  on  earth  must  leave — 
Where  Friendship  rears  a  hallowed  shrine. 
And  Love  is  endless  and  divine." 

The  following  letter,  written  a  little  earlier,  and  in  a 
firmer  hand,  to  his  old  friend  Coleridge,  will  show  how 
actively  he  kept  alive  his  interest  in  the  profession  of 
which  he  had  so  long  been  the  chief  ornament : 

"Middleton:  September,  2,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — Thanks  for  your  account  of  your 
circuit,  so  well  and  wisely  closed.  I  traced  it  when  the 
papers  enabled  me,  and  thought,  with  you,  the  Libel 
jury,  at  Exeter,  wrong.  The  case  curiously  illustrates 
Fox's  distinction  (when  he  introduced  the  Libel  Act) 
between  'meaning'  and  'importing1  the  one  'intent 
of  man,'  the  other  'signification  of  word.'  Had  not  we 
a  similar  question  from  Liverpool,  coram  Erie? 

"I  have  not  seen  the  '  Prelude  ' l  or '  Eldorado,'  and 
am  a  very  bad  and  scratchy  reader. 

"The  first  I  heard  of  the  astonishing  appointment* 
was  from  Wilde's  own  letter  to  Brougham,  which  B.  sent 
to  me  announcing  it.  My  astonishment  was  great,  but 
momentary. 

"  Nothing  will  persuade  me  that  poor  dear  Shadwell 
was  not  killed  by  his  son's  lamentable  death,  co-operat- 
ing with  every  derangement  of  the  system,  and  insuring 

1  Wordsworth's  Prelude  to  the  "  Excursion." 

2  Wilde's  appointment  as  Lord  Chancellor  in  succession  to  Lord  Cotten- 
ham,  on  July  15,  1850,  when  he  was  created  Lord  Truro. 


1 850.]  CORRESPONDENCE.  249 

the  victory  to  bronchitis  in  its  contest  with  life.     I  had 
quite  recently  a  very  affectionate  letter  from  him.1 

"Wonderful  changes  in  this  short  time  ;  but  is  it  not 
more  wonderful  to  see  so  little  change  in  others  as  old 
or  older  and  as  much  worked  ? s 

"  The  greatest  change  is  in  the  law  itself,  by  the  last 
County  Courts' Act,  and  is  irrational.  If  the  experience 
of  small  sums  justifies  the  £$o,  it  justifies  any  amount, 
and  Westminster  Hall  is  superfluous.  What  informa- 
tion have  we  of  the  effect  of  examining  parties — is  it  to 
be  done  in  criminal  cases  too? 

"  We  see  what  you  say  of  Lady  Coleridge  with  great 
pleasure,  and  congratulate  your  grand-paternity ;  but  I 
observe  also  what  you  say  of  yourself,  and  exhort  you 
as  an  old  and  sincere  friend,  and  still  more  as  attached 
to  the  profession  and  concerned  for  the  public,  to  hus- 
band your  powers,  and  preserve  your  activity  and  useful- 
ness by  all  prudent  means  as  long  as  possible.  The  same 
I  say  through  you  to  Patteson,  and  request  also  some 
partridges  of  his  shooting,  if  they  can  be  spared,  and  he 
will  secure  their  safe  arrival  by  not  paying  carriage. 

"  We  are  gradually  improving — have  had  the  Provost 
[Hodgson]  a  short  time,  and  set  him  up.  Richard,  with 
his  wife  and  three  of  his  five  children,  is  with  us  now. 
Gurney  seems  to  deserve  his  good  fortune.3  Jervis  is 
highly  esteemed  on  this  circuit.4 

"  Ever  yours, 

"  DENMAN." 

A  later  letter  of  the  same  year  to  the  same  old  friend, 
is  in  the  handwriting  either  of  Lady  Denman  or  one  of 
his  daughters  : 

"  December,  17,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — I  am  always  happy  to  hear 
from  you,  even  on  so  slender  an  occasion  as  Hetley's 
reports.  I  proceed  to  offer  you  a  little  medical  advice. 

1  Vice-Chancellor  Shadwell  died  on  August  10,  1850,  in  his  seventy- 
second  year ;  he  had  not  very  long  before  lost  his  eldest  son  by  drowning, 
and  never  got  over  the  shock. 

3  Lyndhurst  (then  seventy-eight)  was  seven  years  older  than  Denman 
and  Shadwell ;  Brougham  and  Campbell  each  one  year  older. 

3  Russell  Gurney,  Q.C.,  recently  appointed  Recorder  of  London. 

4  Sir  John  Jervis,  who  had  been  appointed  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common 
Pleas  on  July   15,  1850  (on  the  promotion  of  Sir  Thomas   Wilde   to  the 
Chancellorship),  went  the  Midland  as  his  first  judicial  circuit. 


250  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1850 

"  I  think  your  case  decidedly  nervous,  and  recommend 
that  you  make  a  point  of  considering  your  judicial  busi- 
ness as  the  only  occupation  of  your  life  ;  everything  else 
should  be  calculated  for  your  comfort  and  relaxation, 
and  as  much  of  your  work  as  you  can  properly  suffer  to 
be  done  by  others  should  be  thrown  on  your  younger 
brethren.  Remember  that  you  are  very  emeritus  [Mr.  J. 
Coleridge  had  at  this  time  been  more  than  fifteen  years 
on  the 'Bench],  but  may  reasonably  expect  five  years,  at 
least,  added  to  your  time,  according  to  the  happy  expe- 
rience of  our  three  brethren. 

"  I  am  really  sorry  for  what  you  tell  me  of  the  Chan- 
cellor [Wilde],  having  hoped  he  would  compel  himself 
to  decide.  How  will  he  like  the  elevation  of  Lord 
Cranworth?1  I  think  he  is  a  very  nice  little  peer. 

"  I  agree  with  you  in  condemning  any  slight,  much 
more  any  breach  of  faith,  towards  Parke.  I  think  his 
crotchets  really  awful,  but  I  doubt  whether  any  of  us 
have  taken  more  pains  to  be  right.  His  learning  would 
be  highly  useful,  and  his  eccentricity  sufficiently  kept 
under  in  the  House  of  Lords;8  an  honor  conferred 
on  him  would  be  really  an  homage  done  to  the  legal 
profession. 

"  I  know  you  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  Lady  Den  man's 
health  is  such  as  to  release  me  from  all  anxiety  ;  and 
that  I  am  pursuing  my  recovery  with  the  same  slow, 
but  unremitting  and  undeviating,  tortoise  process. 

"  We  are  now  made  very  happy  by  the  presence  of 
our  children,  and  mean  to  spend  a  merry  Christmas  in 
this  cool  land.  Remember  us  kindly  to  Lady  Coleridge, 
who  will,  I  think,  approve  of  my  advice  to  you,  and  re- 
mind you  of  it  when  necessary. 

"  Yours,  ever, 

"  DENMAN." 

The  signature  is  in  Lord  Denman's  handwriting,  and 
so  is  the  following: 

"  P.  S. —  Excuse     an     amanuensis;     writing    rather 
fatigues — " 

1  Sir  Robert  Mounsey  Rolfe,  appointed  Vice-Chancellor  on  Nov.  2,  1850, 
and  raised  to  the  Peerage,  as  Lord  Cranworth,  in  December,  1850. 

2  He  was  made  a  Peer,  as  Lord  Wensleydale,  in  1856 ;  at  first,  as  is  well 
known,  for  life,  but  eventually  with  the  usual  descent  to  heirs  male,  which 
in  his  case  was  inoperative. 


1850.]  CORRESPONDENCE.  .251 

— a  circumstance  sufficiently  obvious  from  the  evident 
difficulty  with  which  even  those  few  words  have  been 
framed. 

It  is  a  pleasing  proof,  both  of  his  cheerfulness  at  that 
time,  and  of  his  kindly  nature  at  all  times,  that  on 
Christmas  Day,  1850,  he  made  shift  to  write  with  his 
own  feeble  and  unsteady  hand,  the  following  note  to  his 
grandson,  Henry  Denman  Macaulay,  the  eldest  son  of 
his  fourth  daughter  and  of  Lord  Macaulay's  brother, 
then  a  child  of  a  little  over  seven  years  : 

"  Middleton  :   Christmas  Day,  1850. 

"  My  dear  Harry, —  I  am  very  glad  to  receive  a  letter 
all  of  your  own  writing.  You  write  the  word  'righting' 
This  is  a  mistake,  for  righting  means  a  different  thing 
from  writing.  But  even  the  mistake  proves  that  you 
have  made  some  progress  in  learning,  for  you  spell  right 
rightly. 

"  I  hope  you  will  go  on  from  well  to  better,  and  be  a 
right  good  scholar,  a  right  good  son,  a  right  good 
brother,  and,  in  short,  a  right  good  man. 

"  I  shall  write  no  more  at  present,  except  my  good 
wishes  to  yourself  and  all  at  both  houses  on  the  Dingle 
Bank,  for  a  right  merry  Christmas  and  a  right  happy 
new  year,  and  many  of  them. 

"  Your  right  loving  grandfather, 

"  DENMAN." 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

LAW  AMENDMENT. — LETTERS  FROM  BROUGHAM. 
A.D.  1851,  1852.      JET.  72,  73. 

IN  the  year  1851,  and  the  earlier  part  of  1852,  Lord 
Denman's  health  considerably  improved,  and  he 
was  able  to  a  great  extent  to  resume  his  active  in- 
terest in  the  questions  of  the  day,  and  especially  in  all 
matters  relating  to  the  reform  of  the  law. 

To  the  success  of  one  very  important  measure  for 
amending  the  English  law  of  Evidence — that  by  which 
parties  to  suits  were  made  competent  and  compellable 
to  give  evidence — he  was  enabled,  though  no  longer  in 
a  position  to  support  it  in  the  House  of  Lords,  very 
materially  to  contribute,  by  a  most  able  letter,  which, 
on  April  15,  1851,  he  sent  to  the  "  Law  Review,"  the 
principal  organ  of  the  supporters  of  Law  Reform. 

The  Bill  embodying  this  great  improvement  in  English 
procedure  was  prepared  by  that  eminent  law  reformer, 
Mr.  Pitt  Taylor,  and  submitted  to  Lord  Denman  for  his 
approval.  After  some  little  hesitation  in  the  first  in- 
stance, Denman,  on  full  and  mature  consideration,  gave 
the  proposed  bill  his  entire  sanction  and  approval. 
Being  unable  himself  to  take  charge  of  it  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  the  conduct  of  it  there  was  intrusted  to  Lord 
Brougham,  from  which  circumstance  it  came  to  be  known 
as  Lord  Brougham's  Act.1  But  though  Lord  Denman 
was  thus  deprived  of  the  honors  of  its  Parliamentary 
parentage,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any  one  circum- 
stance so  greatly  contributed  to  insure  its  safe  passage 
through  both  Houses  as  Denman's  very  interesting  and 
able  letter,  published  in  the  "  Law  Review,"  which  at 

1  It  received  the  royal  assent  in  August,  1851,  and  is  cited  as  the  14  and 
15  Vic.  c.  99.  See  "Taylor  on  Evidence,"  section  1216,  p.  1167,  ed. 
1868. 


1852.]  LAW     AMENDMENT.  253 

once  arrested  the  attention  and  commanded  the  assent 
of  all  persons  of  candid  mind,  both  in  the  legislature 
and  in  the  legal  profession. 

The  length  of  this  admirable  letter  precludes  insertion 
of  the  whole  of  it,  but  the  following  passage  with  ref- 
erence to  the  general  aversion  of  the  Judges  of  the  Su- 
perior Courts  to  changes  in  _the  law,  is  so  valuable,  as 
conveying  the  result  of  Denman's  long  experience  in  his 
relations,  as  a  steady  and  veteran  law  reformer,  with 
those  learned  persons,  that  it  ought  to  be  given  without 
abridgment.  It  should  be  studied  by  all  who  rely  on 
the  aid  of  the  judicature  as  a  body  for  the  encourage- 
ment and  active  promotion  of  Law  Reform. 

"  To  form  schemes  for  altering  the  law  is  no  part  of  the 
judge's  vocation.  They  have  sometimes  to  my  knowl- 
edge felt  somewhat  aggrieved  by  being  expected  to 
have  done  so,  or  required  to  perform  that  task. 

"  The  lines  of  Horace,  hackneyed  by  frequent  quotation 
on  account  of  their  true  and  felicitous  description  of  a 
certain  phase  of  human  nature,  are  much  more  applica- 
ble to  judges  than  to  literary  or  theatrical  censors, — 

"  ' Clament  periisse  pudorem 

Cuncti  poene  patres,  ea  cum  reprehendere  coner, 
Quse  gravis  ^isopus  qure  doctus  Roscius  egit ; 
Vel  quia  nil  rectum  nisi  quod  placuit  sibi  ducunt ; 
Vel  quia  turpe  putant  parere  minoribus,  et  quas 
Imberbes  didicere,  senes  perdenda  fateri." 

"  Besides  the  constant  occupation  of  their  minds  in  their 
important  functions,  and  the  necessity  for  the  undis- 
turbed enjoyment  of  their  hard-earned  leisure,  there  are 
feelings  in  the  Judges  which  must  ever  strengthen  the 
reluctance  to  assent  to  alteration.  They  have  adminis- 
tered the  law  as  they  found  it,  with  implicit  confidence, 
and  even  veneration,  which  unite  in  them  with  all  the 
obvious  and  instinctive  motives  for  abhorring  change. 
It  is  painful  to  condemn  the  past  and  present.  Even  if 
they  concur  in  the  projected  improvement,  they  had 
rather  that  others  should  be  the  persons  to  counsel  it. 
What  has  satisfied  mankind  so  long  may  be  suffered  to 
remain  during  their  time,  alas  !  too  short  at  the  best. 

"  Some  of  the  chiefs  in  our  Superior  Courts  are  ad- 
vanced to  the  Peerage,  in  the  expectation,  possibly,  that 


254  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.         [1851— 

in  Parliament  they  will  propose  a  remedy  for  defects 
made  apparent  to  them  while  presiding  over  the  admin- 
istration of  the  law.  My  own  activity  in  such  legislation 
has  not  been  excessive :  I  rather  blush  for  the  little  I 
have  attempted,  and  the  less  I  have  been  able  to  do. 
But  I  confess  I  have  felt  discouragement,  regret,  and 
even  humiliation,  at  receiving  the  answer  of  some  of  my 
contemporaries  to  points  which  I  have  thought  it  my 
duty  to  lay  before  them.  '  The  principle  is  perfectly 
right;  I  can  not  answer  your  reasoning,  and  I  see  the 
objection  to  the  present  state  of  the  law,  and  none  to 
the  change,  except  that  it  is  a  change  ;  yet  /  can  not  bring 
myself 'to  concur  in  it.'  It  is  a  fact  on  record,  which  will 
startle  existing  judges,  most  of  whom  probably  never 
heard  of  it  (as  I  am  now  traveling  forty  years  back),  that 
Lord  Ellenborough  announced  in  the  House  of  Lords  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  his  eleven  brother  judges,  that  it 
•would  be  wrong  to  repeal  the  law  ivhich  punished  with 
death  a  larceny  to  the  amount  of  five  shillings  in  a  shop  ! 
The  oracle  had  not  been  consulted,  it  solemnly  volun- 
teered this  fearful  edict.  Perhaps,  also,  every  member 
of  the  present  Parliament  will  be  astonished  to  hear  that 
the  bill  was  for  that  time  rejected. 

"  I  can  not  forget  one  particular  fallacy  which  I  have 
frequently  observed,  and  which  tends  to  increase  the 
aversion  of  some  judges  to  change.  The  system  which 
they  find  they  believe  to  have  been  established  on  full 
deliberation  by  the  wisdom  of  former  ages  ;  and  hence 
impute  to  all  innovators  the  arrogance  of  reversing  a 
decision;  whereas  in  truth  the  existing  system  is  for  tJie 
most  part  the  neglected  growth  of  time  and  accident ;  cir- 
cumstances have  prevented  the  revision  that  is  now 
taking  place,  and  the  existing  defect  is  only  left  un- 
cured  because  no  deliberation  has  ever  been  had  upon 
it." 

Passing  from  this  to  consider  the  principle  on  which 
the  old  Jaw  of  exclusion  was  founded,  viz.  that  the 
evidence  of  interested  witnesses  "  can  never  induce  any 
rational  belief,"  Lord  Denman  proceeds- to  ask: 

"  On  what  ground  is  the  assertion  warranted  that  no 
man,  speaking  with  the  bias  of  interest  on  his  mind,  can 
speak  the  truth  ?  Made  with  respect  to  ourselves  or 


1852.]          EVIDENCE    OF     WITNESSES.  255 

any  individual  of  our  acquaintance,  it  is  an  imputation 
as  false  as  insulting,  and  would  be  rejected  with  just  in- 
dignation. The  earlier  part  of  Mr.  Amos's  treatise  fur- 
nishes a  simple  and  lucid  narrative  of  the  various  causes 
which,  under  his  own  observation,  have  insured  the 
triumph  of  candor  and  veracity  over  the  principle  of 
self  interest,  and  I  have  seldom  read  a  defense  for  man- 
kind from  one  of  the  charges  most  commonly  brought 
against  it  more  ingenious  or  more  just  than  that  con- 
tained in  those  pages.  I  must  also  bear  witness,  as  far 
as  opinion  goes,  that,  notwithstanding  the  frequent  con- 
trarieties of  testimony  observable  in  courts  of  justice, 
the  amount  of  willful  falsehood,  undoubtedly  great,  is  far 
less  than  is  generally  supposed. 

"  '  Ask  no  questions,  and  you  will  hear  no  lies,'  is  a 
vernacular  caution  often  administered  to  inconvenient 
inquisitiveness.  It  seems  to  me  to  comprise  the  whole 
argument  in  opposition  to  this  bill.  But  no  one  will 
advise  us  to  prefer  darkness  to  light  because  the  latter 
must  sometimes  reveal  unsightly  objects  ;  still  less  will 
prudence  suggest  an  entire  abstinence  from  food,  though 
that  is  the  only  perfect  security  against  swallowing 
poison. 

"  With  these  views,  which  I  merely  state,  leaving  the 
argument  in  abler  hands,  I  give  in  my  adhesion  to  the 
principle  of  Lord  Brougham's  Bill,  and  respectfully  thus 
tender  my  vote  for  its  further  progress. 

"  I  remain,  dear  Sir,  very  truly  yours, 

"  DENMAN. 

"Parsloes:  April  21,  185 1."1 

This  was  not  the  only  contribution  of  the  kind  that 
Denman  made  in  his  retirement  to  the  cause  which,  from 
his  first  entry  into  professional  life,  he  always  had  so 
much  at  heart — the  cause  of  Law  Reform.  In  the  year 
1852,  while  the  Common  Law  Procedure  Act  of  that 
year  was  in  its  passage  through  Parliament,  the  late 
Chief  Justice,  who  was  exceedingly  pleased  by  the  bold- 
ness and  thoroughness  of  that  excellent  measure,  lent  it 
efficient  aid  by  a  series  of  short  letters  which  he  wrote, 
from  time  to  time,  on  various  points  as  they  suggested 

1  Parsloes  was  a  place  near  Dagenham,  in  Essex,  then  occupied  by  his 
third  son,  Richard,  with  whom  Denman  was  at  this  time  staying. 


256  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1851— 

themselves,  and  afterwards  collected  in  a  small  pamphlet, 
which  he  published  in  1852,  under  the  title  of  "  Letters 
to  the  Lord  Chancellor  on  Law  Reform." 

The  amendments  of  the  law  for  the  promotion  of 
which  these  letters  were  written  have,  with  few  excep- 
tions, been  since  carried  into  effect,  and  the  discussions 
on  points  of  technical  procedure  with  which  they  are 
principally  occupied  would  have  no  interest  for  the 
general  reader,  and  only  a  retrospective  and  historical 
interest  for  the  professional  reader.  Their  general  tone, 
which,  as  might  be  expected,  was  in  the  highest  degree 
liberal  and  enlightened,  maybe  adequately  judged  of  by 
the  following  passage  from  the  concluding  letter  of  the 
series  : 

"  The  present  crisis  can  not  fail  to  suggest  considera- 
tions of  the  highest  importance.  There  are  appearances 
of  an  attempt  to  establish  order  on  absolute  power,  and 
to  teach  mankind  the  lesson  that  the  will  of  one  may  be 
most  safely  intrusted  with  the  interests  of  all.  But  if 
there  be  truth  in  moral  reasoning,  or  in  long  experience, 
we  know  that  without  the  basis  of  law  no  solid  fabric  of 
order  can  possibly  be  reared,  or  any  security  be  given 
for  the  rights  which  even  the  best  meant  and  best  de- 
vised decrees  may  pretend  to  confer.  It  appears  to  be 
the  peculiar  mission  of  England  to  exhibit  to  the  nations 
of  the  world  a  steady  government,  a  peaceful — because 
contented — people.  And  that  content  must  not  be  looked 
for,  since  it  can  not  and  ought  not  to  exist  where  a  Press  is 
free  and  the  people  but  moderately  enlightened,  while  a 
single  grievance  is  willfully  retained  after  exposure" 

So  impressed  was  Denman  with  the  ability  and  success 
with  which  the  accomplished  Commissioners  had  con- 
ceived and  carried  out  their  important  work,  that  on 
May  27,  1852,  he,  for  the  first  time  since  his  second  para- 
lytic seizure,  and  for  the  last  time  in  his  life,  rose  in  his 
place  and  addressed  the  House  of  Lords,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  Lord  Truro's  moving  the  third  reading  of  the 
Common  Law  Procedure  Bill  of  1852,  in  high  commenda- 
tion of  the  bill  and  of  its  learned  authors.  In  a  few  em- 
phatic words  he  expressed  "  the  happiness  he  felt  at 
bearing  his  humble  testimony  to  the  truth  of  his  noble 
and  learned  friend's  (the  Chancellor's)  statement  with 


1852.]  BROUGHAM'S    LETTERS.  257 

respect  both  to  the  merits  of  the  measure,  and  of  the 
Commissioners  by  whom  it  had  been  prepared.  They 
were  men  of  the  highest  ability,  and  they  had  performed 
the  duties  intrusted  to  them  in  a  manner  creditable  to 
themselves  and  most  advantageous  for  the  country." 

After  suggesting  one  or  two  trifling  amendments,  he 
sat  down — his  latest  utterance  in  Parliament,  like  so 
many  of  his  earliest,  having  for  its  subject  the  great 
cause  of  the  Amendment  of  the  Law. 

In  his  exertions  for  the  progress  of  Law  Reform,  In  the 
years  1851  and  1852,  his  most  vigorous  and  able  coadju- 
tor was  his  old  friend  and  ally,  Henry  Brougham,  many 
of  whose  letters  to  him  during  this  period  have  been 
preserved  among  his  papers.  They  are  very  characteris- 
tic letters,  but  are  frequently  not  very  quotable,  being 
many  of  them  filled  with  complaints,  not  expressed  in 
the  most  courtly  language,  at  the  lukewarmness  as  a  law 
reformer  of  "  Jonathan  Wilde"  (as  Brougham  always 
persisted  in  calling  the  then  Chancellor,  Lord  Truro, 
formerly  Sir  Thomas  Wilde),  and  with  vehement  insinua- 
tions against  the  alleged  jobbery  of  the  Princess  his 
wife.1  That  Lord  Truro  was  a  somewhat  slow  and  reluc- 
tant law  reformer  was  true  enough  ;  the  other  imputa- 
tions were  utterly  non-proven,  and  in  all  probability 
quite  baseless. 

Brougham's  letters  show,  among  other  things,  his  own 
eagerness  to  obtain  place  and  promotion  for  those  who 
had  served  the  public  objects  he  had  most  at  heart,  and 
they  are  all  instinct  with  the  morbid  restlessness  of  a 
mind  which  could  only  exist  in  the  excitement  and  tur- 
moil of  an  incessant  activity.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
the  feverish  fussiness  of  Brougham,  by  urging  Denman 
to  exertions  for  which  he  was  not  fitted,  may  have  in 
some  degree  contributed  to  accelerate  the  attack  which, 
at  the  close  of  1852,  finally  prostrated  him. 

Among  Brougham's  letters  from  Cannes  there  are  a 
few  passages  relating  to  contemporary  French  politics 
which  are  not  without  interest.  The  following,  too, 

1  Augusta  Emma  d'Este,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex  and  Lady 
Augusta  Murray.  Wilde  won  the  lady  by  the  singular  zeal  and  ability 
with  which  he  sought  (though  in  vain)  to  establish  her  and  her  brother's 
legitimacy  before  the  House  of  Lords,  in  the  famous  case  of  the  Sussex 
peerage. 

II.— 17 


258  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.         [1851— 

written   from   Walmer  Castle,  in  the   early   summer   of 
1851,  gives  a  pleasant  picture  of  the  Great  Duke  and  of  v 
his  affection  and  esteem  for  Denman  : 

"I  received  your  letter  ihe  day  I  left  town  for 
Brockett  Hall,  and  delayed  writing  till  now  that  I  might 
be  able  to  give  you  my  report  of  the  Duke's  health, 
which  I  can  do  most  satisfactorily,  having  passed  the 
whole  of  last  evening  alone  with  him  (there  is  only  Lady 
Charles  Wellesley  here).  I  certainly  never  saw  him 
better,  and  seldom  so  well  in  all  respects.  I  am  sure 
very  small  parties  agree  best  with  him,  though  his 
extreme  good-nature  makes  him  often  submit  to  go  into 
larger  ones,  I  mean  dinners,  for  evening  parties  he  always 
liked  and  likes.  Of  all  the  evenings  I  ever  passed  with 
him  I  really  think  this  was  the  most  interesting,  and 
on  all  subjects.  He  asked  much  and  kindly,  and  with  the 
greatest  interest,  after  you,  and  when  I  told  him  I  should 
tell  you,  and  that  it  would  gratify  you,  he  begged  me  to 
do  so,  and  to  say  everything  most  kind.  I  told  him  how 
you  valued  him  privately  and  personally,  as  well  as 
publicly,  and  that  no  time  ever  would  erase  from  your 
mind  the  sense  of  his  gallant  and  friendly  conduct  in 
your  instance  [in  the  matter  of  the  silk  gown  in  1828]. 
He  seemed  much  pleased,  and  also  expressed  himself 
most  becomingly  on  the  topic,  and  I  really  think  as 
amicably  as  becomingly.  He  spoke  with  pleasure  of 
Middleton,  where  he  said  he  had  been  to  see  you  from 
Chats  worth,  and  what  a  nice  place  he  thought  it." 

Brougham's  impressions  of  the  coup  dttat  of  Decem- 
ber 2,  1851,  and  its  probable  issues,  are  thus  given  in 
letters  written  from  Cannes,  within  a  few  days  and 
weeks  after  its  occurrence.  On  December  8,  1851,  he 
writes : 

"  I  did  not  expect  a  coup  d'etat  now,  hardly  even  in 
the  spring,  but  I  believe  the  general  fear,  the  general 
desire  of  la  paix  a  tout  prix  (on  which  I  had  reckoned) 
will  certainly  now  prevent  any  serious  or  wide-spreading 
mischief.  Louis  Napoleon  is  quite  sure  to  succeed  for 
the  present.  But  his  uncle  depended  on  an  army  and 
generals;  he  must  depend  after  a  while  on  an  assembly 
.and  debaters,  and  he  has  not  one  that  anybody  ever 
heard  of." 


1852.]       LETTERS    FROM    BROUGHAM.  259 

On  the  23rd,  after  referring  to  certain  excesses  of  the 
Reds  and  the  Socialists,  he  writes  ; 

"  These  things,  and  the  atrocities  elsewhere,  have 
completely  played  Louis  Napoleon's  game,  and  he  is  safe 
for  a  while.  All  feel  that  he  alone  can  now  prevent  the 
worst  mischiefs,  and  so  they  will  support  him  till  he  has 
an  opportunity  of  giving  good  measures  and  wise  laws, 
and  then  I  think  he  will  both  get  a  better  grounded  sup- 
port and  deserve  it.  His  grand  difficuly  is  that  he  can  not, 
like  his  uncle,  govern  by  the  army  alone  ;  he  must  have 
an  assembly,  and  the  two  together  will  be  very  difficult 
to  rule  by.  He  has  shown  the  greatest  talents  for  affairs 
in  my  judgment ;  but  that  he  had  a  right  so  to  act  will 
depend  on  his  case.  He  must  prove  the  conspiracy 
against  himself,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Reds  against 
society." 

On  January  13,  1852,  he  writes,  still  from  Cannes,  on 
the  same  subject; 

"  We  are  fated  to  witness  a  retrograde  movement  in 
Europe  under  the  fatal  influence  of  fear.  Here  we  have 
France  entirely  under  that  influence,  and  Louis  Napoleon 
owes  to  it  his  eight  millions  of  votes  vesting  in  him 
absolute  power.  The  vile  revolution  of  1848  no  doubt 
is  the  remote  cause,  but  the  immediate  is  fear  of  mob 
rule ;  and  a  most  just  fear,  too,  only  that  it  is  going  to 
make  the  whole  country  in  love  with  military  despotism. 
I  find  many  reasonable  people  prepared  to  take  peace 
and  quiet  and  security  at  that  or  at  any  price.  He  is 
resolved,  it  seems,  to  put  down  Parliamentary  Govern- 
ment and  the  Press.  He  regards  himself  as  a  sort  of 
Providence  to  effect  these  changes;  and  as  the  factions 
in  Parliament,  the  follies  of  the  mob  agitators,  and  the 
insolence  of  the  Press,  have  made  liberal  government  for 
the  moment  unpopular,  he  expects  to  succeed.  Of 
course  he  had  the  good  wishes  of  the  Continental  gov- 
ernments, and  I  should  apprehend  of  the  upper  classes 
as  well.  I  fear  he  has  something  of  the  same  sympathy 
among  ourselves." 

The  same  letter  contains  the  following  passage  on  the 
enforced  retirement  of  Lord  Palmerston  from  the  For- 
eign Office,  in  December,  1851,  and  on  the  satisfaction 
it  caused  among  the  Continental  absolutists: 


26o  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.         [1851— 

"  I  find  there  is  very  great  delight  everywhere  at 
Palmerston's  overthrow,  which  was  inevitable  after  his 
Kossuth  insanity;  but  the  mode  and  manner  of  it  has 
been,  I  understand,  most  offensive,  and  such  as  he  is 
not  likely  to  forgive.1  I  find  it  was  a  surprise  on  almost 
all  his  colleagues.  Grey  had  no  hand  whatever  in  it. 
The  '  Letter-Writer'  [Lord  John 'Russell]  seems  to  have 
done  it  all  himself,4  and  he  is  much  mistaken  if  he 
reckons  on  Stanley  [Lord  Derby]  as  no  longer  capable 
of  forming  a  Government,  or  on  any  Reform  cry  as  being 
sufficient  to  carry  him  through.  As  to  '  No  Popery,'  it 
it  is  more  likely  to  tell  against  than  for  him." 

Writing  from  Boulogne,  on  his  way  to  London,  on 
January  28,  1852,  he  says: 

"  The  state  of  France  is  such  as  to  fill  men  with  sor- 
row, even  more  than  alarm.  Absolute  despotism,  worse 
than  Oriental,  because  the  man  thinks  he  has  the  whole 
people  with  him,  except  the  reflecting  and  respect- 
able classes,  of  whom  he  makes  no  account.  The  coup 
ddtat  had  really  been  not  only  justifiable,  but  useful. 
Then  came  the  votes,  which  seemed  to  have  turned  his 
head,  and  now  it  seems  as  if  he  were  capable  of  any- 
thing. This  Orleans'  confiscation  is  in  all  respects 
abominable ;  but  the  distribution  of  the  spoil  has  dis- 
gusted me  far  more  than  the  robbery  itself.  Meanwhile 
I  can  see  no  use  in  our  Press  raving  against  him,  and  I 
hope  Parliament  will  not  join  in  the  useless  and  hurtful 
chorus,  though  I  admit  it  is  not  easy  to  avoid  it.  Of 
war  I  have  no  great  fear,  but  preparation  is  all  right. 
The  risk  is  not  of  his  knowingly  and  willfully  making 
war,  but,  without  the  scienter,  doing  some  other  violent 
act  that  may  lead  to  it." 

Soon  after  Brougham's  arrival  in  England,  on  Feb- 
ruary 20,  1852,  Palmerston's  revenge  was  taken;  Lord 
John  Russell  resigned  on  the  Militia  Bill,  and  Lord 
Derby,  on  the  23rd,  succeeded  in  forming  a  ministry 
which  held  together  till  the  next  December.  Brougham 
writes  thus : 

1  He  did  not ;  but,  biding  his  time,  in  February,  1852,  he  upset  Lord 
John  Russell's  ministry  on  the  Militia  Bill,  and  brought  in  the  Tories. 

*  Moved  thereto,  as  afterwards  explained  in  Parliament,  by  the  Queen 
and  Prince  Albert. 
II.— 17 


1852.)       LETTERS    FROM    BROUGHAM.  =61 

"  So  you  see  they  are  out.  A  more  unhappy  moment 
for  a  crisis,  and  especially  for  a  dissolution,1  could  not 
have  been  chosen ;  but  I  entirely  admit  that  a  feeble 
government  at  such  a  time  was  not  desirable.  And  now, 
instead  of  Jonathan,  we  shall  have  Sugden  to  remit  all 
law  amendment,  but  I  daresay  with  Jonathan's  assist- 
ance. I  must  say  I  think  J.  Russell's  treatment  of  his 
colleagues  too  bad.  He  writes  Durham  letters,  and 
sends  them  to  the  papers  before  he  even  lets  one  of  his 
colleagues  see  them.  And  he  announces  that  the  Gov- 
ernment is  at  an  end,  twice  a  year  ago,  and  now,  before 
he  has  seen  one  of  them — thus  proving  it  was  either  a  pre- 
concerted move,  or  that  he  acted  without  asking  their 
opinion — out  of  this  dilemma  he  has  no  escape.  And 
now  we  are  under  one  of  the  cleverest  and  lightest  and 
most  ill-furnished  heads  in  England,  with  a  great  many 
good  qualities  more  or  less  unavailing." 

1  The  dissolution  did  not  take  place  till  July  I. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

LADY  DENMAN'S  DEATH — NICE — THIRD  AND  FINAL 
STROKE  OF  PARALYSIS. 

A.  D.,  1852.     JET.  73. 

IN  the  summer  of  1852  there  came  upon  Denman  the 
saddest  bereavement  that  ever  befel  him,  in  the  loss 
of  her  whose  loving  companionship,  through  a 
period  of  nearly  half  a  century,  had  been  the  joy  and 
delight  of  his  youth,  the  crowning  blessedness  of  his 
manhood,  the  unspeakable  solace  of  his  decline. 

Lady  Denman,  who  had  for  some  years  been  in  a 
feeble  state  of  health,  had  spent  several  months  with 
her  husband,  in  the  spring  and  early  summer  of  1852, 
at  Parsloes,  near  Dagenham,  in  Essex,  a  country-house 
then  occupied  by  her  third  son,  Richard,  his  wife  and 
family. 

The  eldest  daughter  of  Mr.- and  Mrs.  Richard  Den- 
man, a  lovely  child  of  nine  years  of  age,  of  most  angelic 
goodness  and  sweetness  of  nature,  named  after  her 
grandmother,  Theodosia  Anne,  had  died,  after  a  short 
illness,  on  June  3,  while  Lady  Denman  was  in  the 
house.  She  was  herself  then  very  ill ; '  the  death  of  her 
favorite  granddaughter  deeply  affected  her;  the  un- 
favorable symptoms  increased,  violent  and  frequent 
hemorrhages  set  in,  and  she  died  from  the  consequent 
exhaustion,  on  June  28,  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  her 
age. 

The  following  hasty  lines,  giving  an  account  of  her 
last  hours,  were  written  by  Denman,  with  trembling  and 
unsteady  hand,  to  his  eldest  daughter,  Mrs.  Wright  : 

"During  the  whole  of  yesterday  she  was  often  un- 
conscious, and  had  but  short  intervals  of  disturbed 

1  Suffering  under  that  insidious  and  dangerous  malady  known  as  Bright's 
disease. 


1852.]  LADY    DEN  MAN'S    DEATH.  263 

sleep.  She  could  hardly  articulate,  but  continued  to 
•express  her  warm  affection  for  those  about  her.  Her 
smiles  across  the  looks  of  suffering  were  most  beautiful. 
When  I  kissed  and  wished  her  good-night  she  returned 
the  pressure  with  an  animation  that  gave  me  for  a  mo- 
ment strong  hopes  of  reaction  and  recovery.  To  the 
last  faint  struggle  her  heart  was  overflowing  with  love 
and  her  lips  with  blessing." 

The  shock  of  this  separation,  after  after  a  union  of 
eight-and-forty  years  passed  in  uninterrupted  tenderness 
and  affection,  was  such  as  might  be  expected  from  the 
deep  and  sensitive  nature  ofTJenman.  He  never  got 
over  it,  but,  though  surrounded  with  the  loving  atten- 
tions of  children  as  deeply  devoted  as  ever  gathered 
round  the  declining  years  of  a  father,  he  yet  always  felt, 
though  he  rarely  if  ever  expressed  it,  that  abiding  sense 
of  a  "  hidden  want "  which  saps  the  springs  of  life  and 
poisons  the  sources  of  enjoyment. 

The  remains  of  the  wife  and  the  grandchild  lie  buried 
side  by  side  in  Dagenham  Churchyard,  and  the  follow- 
ing simple  and  touching  inscription,  written  by  Denman 
himself,  was  placed  above  their  grave  : 

IN  MEMORY  OF 
THEODOSIA  ANNE,  THE  WIFE  OF  THOMAS,  LORD  DENMAN, 

CHIEF  JUSTICE   OF  ENGLAND. 
BORN  2 1ST  NOVEMBER,  17/9;   DIED  JUNE   28TH,  1852. 

AND   OF   HER 

GRAND-  AND  GOD-CHILD,  THEODOSIA  ANNE,  THE  ELDEST 

DAUGHTER     OF     RICHARD     AND     EMMA     DENMAN. 

BORN  JUNE  26TH,  1843  :   DIED  3RD  JUNE,  1852. 


THE  STONE  WHICH  RECORDS  THEIR  DEATH  MAY  TELL  IN   THE 

SAME    LANGUAGE   OF   THE    VIRTUES   OF    WHICH    ONE   GAVE    EARLY    PROOF, 

AND  BY  WHICH  THE  OTHER  WAS,  THROUGH  A  LONG  LIFE 

ENDEARED  TO  ALL  WHO  KNEW  HER. 
INNOCENT,  PIOUS,  GENTLE,  AND  AFFECTIONATE  : 

WELL  PREPARED  FOR  THAT  BLISS  WHICH   THEIR  BEREAVED  FRIENDS 
HUMBLY  TRUST  THEY  ARE  NOW  ENJOYING  TOGETHER. 

Everything  was  done  that  could  be  done  to  lighten 
the  burden  of  his  sorrow.      They  took  him  for  change 


264  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1852. 

of  air  and  scene  to  Scarborough,  and  in  the  .late  autumn 
he  accompanied  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Richard  Denman  and 
their  remaining  children  to  Nice,  where  his  son  had 
been  advised  by  his  medical  attendants  to  pass  the 
winter. 

One  subject,  and  one  subject  only,  beyond  the  limits 
of  his  private  grief,  had  still  power  to  move  him  deeply 
— too  deeply  for  his  happiness  and  peace — and  that  was 
the  terrible,  ever-haunting  subject  of  Slavery  and  the 
Slave  Trade.  By  this  time  Mrs.  Stowe's  master  work 
had  taken  by  storm  the  attention  of  all  the  world. 
Knowing  the  effect  it  would  have  on  their  father,  his 
children  at  first  tried  to  keep  it  from  him,  but  this,  in 
the  case  of  one  not  absolutely  secluded  from  society, 
was,  of  course,  impossible.  He  read  it,  and  with  what 
result  is  easy  to  conceive.  It  moved  him  not  only  with 
pity  and  horror,  but  filled  him  also  with  bitterness  and 
wrath,  under  the  inspiration  of  which,  coupled,  no 
doubt,  with  a  mistaken  sense  of  over-mastering  duty,  he 
was  led  to  perpetrate  the  most  ill-advised  and  regretable 
action  of  his  life — the  publication,  namely,  in  the  late 
autumn  of  1852,  first  separately  in  newspapers,  after 
wards  collectively  as  a  pamphlet,  of  certain  "  Letters  on 
*  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  '  Bleak  House/  '  Slavery  and  the 
Slave  Trade,'  "  in  which  he  permitted  himself  to  make 
the  most  unwarrantable  and  rancorous  attacks  on 
Dickens,  whom  he  charged  with  having,  in  "Bleak 
House"  (by  his  inimitable  caricature  of  philanthropy 
run  mad,  in  the  person  .of  Mrs.  Jellaby),  and  also  in  cer- 
tain articles  in  •"  Household  Words,"  "  taken  pains  to 
discourage  the  efforts  then  making  to  put  down  Slavery 
and  the  Slave  Trade,"  and  thus  "  having  done  his  best 
to  replunge  the  world  into  barbarism." 

Strictures  such  as  these,  directed  in  terms  of  the  bit- 
terest invective  against  Charles  Dickens,  Denman's  old 
friend  and  steady  admirer — the  incomparable  satirist  and 
humorist  who  in  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit  "  and  "American 
Notes  "  had  done  more  than  any  other  writer,  not  even 
excepting  Mrs.  Stowe,  to  keep  alive  in  England  a  horror 
and  detestation  of  slavery  as  practiced  in  the  United 
States — were  indeed  sad  and  unjustifiable.  The  subject, 
though  its  mention  in  any  truthful  record  of  Denman's 


1852.]  LETTERS  ON  'BLEAK  HOUSE,"  ETC.     265 

life  was  unavoidable,  is  too  painful  a  one  to  dwell  upon. 
Non  ragionam  di  lor. 

Some  members  of  the  family  soon  became  not  unnatu- 
rally anxious  to  excuse  as  far  as  possible,  on  the  ground 
of  morbid  excitement  and  overwrought  feeling,  this  un- 
fortunate indulgence  in  "  letter  writing,"  and  Mrs.  Crop- 
per1 inclosed  to  Dickens  a  communication  in  this  sense, 
drawn  up  with  great  tact  and  kindliness  by  her  brother 
George,  the  present  Mr.  Justice  Denman. 

The  reply  of  Dickens — a  reply  strongly  marked  by 
proper  self-respect,  good  sense  and  good  feeling — was  as 
follows: — 

"  Tavistock  House,  January  21,  1853. 

"  Dear  Mrs.  Cropper, — I  think  it  best  on  full  considera- 
tion to  send  you  the  inclosed  letter  back  without  read- 
ing it.  I  have  set  forth  to  you  the  truth  of  the  subject, 
and  have  utterly  dismissed  Lord  Denman's  part  in  it 
from  my  mind.  What  he  has  written  and  what  I  have 
done,  nothing  can  change.  The  only  one  thing  in 
abeyance  is  the  question  whether  injudicious  partisan- 
ship will  awaken  reaction  against  the  Slave.  That  we 
shall  all  see  for  ourselves — too  soon,  I  think — and  the 
perusal  of  your  brother's  letter  could  assist  none  of  us. 
I  say  again  I  have  cleared  my  mind  of  Lord  Denman's 
last  opinions  of  me.  I  know  I  deserve  his  former  and 
wiser  judgment,  and  I  cancel  the  rest  for  ever. 
"  My  dear  Mrs.  Cropper, 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

"  CHARLES  DICKENS." 

It  is  pleasant  to  pass  from  this  sad  business  and  see 
Denman,  before  he  left  England,  again  under  the  influ- 
ence of  a  kindlier  and  better  mood,  a  mood  that  was 
native  and  natural  to  him — of  high  admiration  and  sym- 
pathy for  all  that  was  really  good  and  for  all  that  was 
truly  great. 

The  Great  Duke  died  on  September  16,  1852,  and 
Denman,  who  had  always  entertained  the  highest  vener- 
ation for  his  great  qualities  ;  who,  on  private  grounds, 
moreover,  had  occasion  to  be  deeply  grateful  to  him  ; 
and  who,  like  all  the  world,  was  much  impressed  by  his 
death,  endeavored  to  give  expression  to  his  feelings  on 

1  Denman's  fourth  daughter,  Margaret. 


266  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1852. 

the  occasion  in  the  following  quatrain,  by  no  means  the 
worst  among  the  many  metrical  effusions  which  the 
death  of  the  great  Captain  called  forth  : — 

In  youth  and  age,  in  peace  and  war  the  same, 
With  many  tasks,  but  still  one  only  aim, 
For  England's  weal  with  single  heart  he  stood, 
Best  of  the  great,  and  greatest  of  the  good. 

It  was  early  in  November  when  Denman,  with  his  son 
and  daughter-in-law,  arrived  in  Nice,  where  he  soon 
found  several  persons  whom  it  was  pleasant  to  know; 
amongst  others  Sir  George  Napier  (brother  of  the  heroic 
conqueror  of  Scinde)  and  his  wife,  with  whom  he  soon 
grew  into  terms  of  intimacy.  But  it  was  the  old  story  ; 
in  changing  sky  and  climate  he  had  not  changed  the 
current  of  his  thoughts,  and  the  black  shadow  of  that 
infinite  anguish  and  wickedness  in  the  far  lands  and  seas, 
which  he  was  so  powerless  to  mitigate,  darkened  over 
his  spirit  as  much  by  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
as  among  the  hills  of  Derbyshire.  Whatever  might  for 
a  time  occupy  the  foreground,  this  brooding  presence 
ever  lowered  in  the  background  of  his  mind. 

While  in  this  state  of  overcharged  and  morbid  pre- 
disposition for  perilous  excitement,  there  came  to  him 
from  Mrs.  Sto\ve(who  wrote,  of  course,  in  the  most  utter 
ignorance  of  the  shattered  state  of  his  nervous  system) 
an  impassioned  and  most  eloquent  letter,  which  was  cer- 
tainly not  calculated  to  allay  the  fever  of  the  mind  under 
which  he  labored.  It  was  written  in  answer  to  a  letter 
which  Denman  had  sent  to  her  from  England,  contain- 
ing, in  language  poured  forth  warmly  from  the  heart, 
the  expressions  of  his  gratitude  and  admiration  for  her 
memorable  book,  and  his  deep  sense  of  the  service  which 
it  had  already  rendered,  and  was  destined  to  render  still 
more  thereafter,  to  the  progress  of  the  great  cause.  Mrs. 
Stowe's  reply  was  in  these  terms  : 

"  My  Lord, — Could  anything  flatter  me  into  an  un- 
warrantable estimate  of  myself,  it  would  be  commenda- 
tion from  such  sources  as  your  Lordship.  But  I  am  ut- 
terly incredulous  of  all  that  is  said  ;  it  passes  by  me  like 
a  dream.  I  can  only  see  that  when  a  higher  Being  has 
purposes  to  be  accomplished  he  can  make  even  a  grain 
of  mustard  seed  the  means. 


1852.]       LETTER    FROM    MRS.     STOWE.  267 

"  I  wrote  what  I  did  because  as  a  woman,  as  a  mother, 
I  was  oppressed  and  heartbroken  with  the  sorrows  and 
injustice  I  saw  ;  because  as  a  Christian  I  felt  the  dis- 
honor to  Christianity  ;  because  as  a  lover  of  my  country 
I  trembled  at  the  coming  day  of  wrath. 

"  It  is  no  merit  in  the  sorrowful  that  they  weep,  or  to 
the  oppressed  and  smothering  that  they  gasp  and  strug- 
gle, nor  to  me  that  I  must  speak  for  the  oppressed  who 
can  not  speak  for  themselves. 

"  My  Lord,  such  men  as  your  Lordship  have  great 
power.  You  can  do  much.  The  expression  of  your 
opinion  is  of  great  weight.  So  does  this  horrible  evil 
paralyze  public  sentiment  here,  that  we  who  stand  foi 
liberty  must  look  for  aid  to  the  public  sentiment  of  na- 
tions, and  in  that  sentiment  none  are  so  powerful  as  the 
great  minds  of  England.  The  hope,  therefore,  which  I 
conceive  from  seeing  such  men  in  England  as  Archbishop 
Whately,  the  Earls  of  Carlisle  and  Shaftesbury,  Arthur 
Helps,  Kingsley,  and  your  Lordship,  interested  in  our 
movements,  is  great. 

"  All  men  of  any  distinction  in  England  have  weight 
with  a  certain  circle  of  minds  here,  and  by  their  distance 
from  the  evil,  and  entire  disconnection,  can  present  it 
in  a  light  very  different  from  that  in  which  any  native- 
born  American  can. 

"  Anyone  here  can  be  hustled  down,  for  all  the  capital, 
all  the  political  power,  and  much  of  the  ecclesiastical,  is 
against  the  agitation  of  this  subject ;  but  you  can  force 
them  to  agitate. 

"  In  your  reviews,  in  your  literature,  you  can  notice 
and  hold  up  before  the  world  those  awful  facts  which, 
but  for  you,  they  would  go  on  scornfully  denying  as  they 
have  done. 

"  Furthermore,  there  are  men  in  the  Slave  States,  re- 
pressed and  kept  under,  who  are  more  glad  than  they 
dare  to  say  at  what  you  do.  They  hope  that  you  will 
keep  on,  and  bring  about  such  a  state  of  things  as  they 
can  take  advantage  of  to  accomplish  emancipation. 

"I   have   now   nearly  through  the  press' a  volume  en 
titled  '  Key  to  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.'     It   contains  docu 
mentary  and  attested  evidence   to  show  that  if  my  rep 
1  Published  in  1852 


268  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1854. 

resentations  have  erred  anywhere,  it  is  by  being  under 
rather  than  over-colored.  Oh,  my  Lord !  never  was 
such  an  awful  story  told  under  the  sun.  I  have  written 
it  with  perfect  horror.  One-third  of  the  book  is  taken 
up  with  legal  documents,  statute  laws,  decisions  of 
courts,  reports  of  trials.  It  is  worse  than  I  supposed  or 
dreamed. 

"  My  Lord,  I  am  conscious  that  this  is  not  my  work, 
for  mine  is  another  field  ;  but  I  have  been  forced  to  it 
by  the  unblushing  denials  and  most  impudent  represen- 
tations with  regard  to  what  I  said  in  my  book  as  to  slave 
law. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  this  tremendous  story  can  not 
be  told  in  the  civilized  world  without  forcing  attention. 
On  the  whole,  there  is  hope,  there  is  movement,  there 
is  evidently  '  a  stirring  of  bones  in  this  valley  of  vision.' 
Standing  as  I  do  between  the  living  and  the  dead,  feeble 
in  health  and  often  very  sorrowful,  I  have  little  reali- 
zation of  anything  personal  in  this  matter  further  than 
the  consciousness  of  struggle  and  labor.  I  thank  your 
Lordship,  therefore,  more  for  the  noble  and  hearty  in- 
terest which  you  feel  in  this  sacred  and  suffering  cause, 
than  even  for  the  very  kind  opinion  you  have  been  kind 
enough  to  express  of  me.  It  has  done  much  good.  All 
that  the  book  has  done  might  have  been  crushed  but  for 
the  reinforcement  and  support  of  your  country.  May 
God  bless  it  and  you,  is  the  prayer  of 

"  Yours,  very  gratefully, 
"  H.  B.  STOWE." 

It  may  have  been  only  a  coincidence,  not  a  conse- 
quence, that,  very  shortly  after  the  receipt  of  this  letter, 
Denman  was  prostrated  by  the  terrible  final  stroke  of 
paralysis,  which,  for  the  remainder  of  his  days,  made  his 
tongue  incapable  of  articulate  speech  and  his  hand  of 
self-originated  writing. 

What  is  certain  is  this,  that  his  last  seizure  took  place 
on  the  very  day  he  had  inclosed  to  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
Cropper,  his  reply  to  Mrs.  Stowe's  letter,  requesting  her 
to  forward  it  to  the  great  American  authoress,  whose 
correct  address  he  did  not  know,  and  who  (as  will  be 
seen  above)  had  given  no  address  in  her  letter  to  him. 
The  very  last  words  he  ever  wrote,  except  as  a  copy  of 


1854-]        FINAL  STROKE  OF  PARALYSIS.  269 

words  written  for  him  by  others,  were  Mrs.  Cropper's 
name  and  address  on  the  above-mentioned  envelope. 

It  was  on  December  2,  1852,  that  this  strange  and 
terrible  affliction  befell  him  ;  strange  as  well  as  terrible, 
for  it  had  this  peculiarity  about  it,  that  while  he  retained 
his  intellectual  and  emotional  faculties  almost  unim- 
paired, his  powers  of  communication  with  others  by 
writing  as  well  as  by  speech  were  absolutely  and  entirely 
taken  from  him.  That  speech,  indeed,  should  go  was 
quite  in  the  ordinary  course  of  paralytic  seizures,  but  it 
does  not,  it  is  believed,  always,  or  indeed  often,  follow, 
to  the  extent  that  it  did  in  Denman's  case,  that  the 
power  of  self-originated  writing  should  be  so  totally  ex- 
tinguished. He  could  frame  written  letters  with  a  pen, 
he  could  readily  distinguish  one  ivory  letter  from 
another  when  arranged  in  lines  before  him  ;  but  to  form 
these  letters  into  words,  or  words  into  sentences,  was 
utterly  beyond  his  powers,  unless  the  words  and  sen- 
tences were  written,  or  put  together  as  a  model  for  him 
to  copy  from.  When  he  had  received  letters — and  many 
kind  correspondents,  knowing  the  delight  he  felt  in  pe- 
rusing them,  were  constant  in  writing  to  him — the  only 
way  he  could  acknowledge  them  was  by  copying  in  a 
sort  of  formal  print-hand  any  passage  in  them  that  had 
particularly  pleased  him,  and  causing  that  to  be  sent  to 
the  writers,  in  token  that  he  had  read  and  been  pleased 
by  their  communications. 

The  state  to  which  he  was  now  reduced  may  be  judged 
of  by  the  following,  passage  from  a  brief  account  drawn 
up  by  his  son,  Richard,  of  the  days  that  he  passed  at 
Nice,  between  his  attack  in  December  and  his  return  to 
England  in  the  spring. 

"  The  sore  infliction  of  dumbness  he  bore  with  wonder- 
ful patience.  It  was  the  more  heavy  to  him,  because  he 
had  always  taken  great  pains  to  express  his  meaning 
with  clearness,  and  the  sudden  discovery  that  he  could 
not  make  himself  understood  puzzled  and  annoyed  him. 
Dr.  Travis  [then  practicing  at  Nice],  who  attended  him 
with  the  utmost  skill  and  care,  entertained  the  hope 
(which,  alas!  proved  fallacious)  that  as  the  severity  of  the 
stroke  wore  off,  the  power  of  speech  would  return,  and 
in  the  meantime  various  attempts  were  made  to  assist 


270  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1854. 

him  to  make  himself  understood  by  giving  him  ivory 
letters,  which  he  might  form  into  words,  or  by  en- 
couraging him  to  write  his  wishes  with  his  left  hand  now 
that  the  right  was  completely  paralyzed.  He  soon  wrote 
very  tolerably  with  the  left  hand,  but  it  was  found  that 
he  could  originate  nothing,  and  when  some  deeds  were 
sent  from  England  for  his  signature  he  could  only  sign 
his  name  by  seeing  it  written  out  and  copying  it. 

"And  yet  his  mind  was  as  clear  as  ever  to  receive  im- 
pressions. He  could  read,  and  could  clearly  understand 
everything  that  was  either  read  or  said  to  him.  Law 
reports,  debates  in  Parliament,  &c.,  interested  him  as 
much  as  ever,  and  he  showed  by  his  countenance  and  by 
signs  that  he  not  only  appreciated  fine  passages,  but 
that  he  perfectly  understood  controverted  points,  and 
could  he  have  expressed  himself  was  as  capable  as  ever 
of  deciding  them. 

"  But  all  power  of  expression  was  lost,  the  magnificent 
voice,  which  had  been  all  his  life  raised  for  justice  and 
liberty,  was  never  to  utter  another  word.  He  was  like  a 
casket  full  of  precious  jewels  which  no  earthly  power 
could  unlock,  and  those  who  were  near  and  dear  to  him 
were  never  again  to  hear  from  his  lips  the  words  of  wis- 
dom and  honor! " 

Mrs.  Cropper  writes  to  the  same  effect : 

"  With  loss  of  speech  he  lost  also  the  power  of  writing 
letters,  or  expressing  himself  in  any  way,  and  he  never 
learned  again  to  sign  his  own  name  except  by  copying 
it  from  print.  His  mind  was  clear  to  the  last,  his- 
memory  appeared  to  be  perfect,  but  so  entirely  de- 
stroyed was  his  power  of  expression  in  any  way,  that  his 
mode  of  replying  to  the  frequent  letters  from  his  family 
friends  was  by  simply  copying  them  out  and  sending  his 
own  copies." 

Many  of  these  touching  mementoes  of  his  love  and 
interest  in  all  that  belonged  to  him  have  been  preserved 
with  pious  care  by  the  various  members  of  his  family — 
melancholy  fragments  of  a  noble  ruin. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

DENMAN'S  LONG  INFIRMITY — HIS  WONDERFUL  PATIENCE 
UNDER  IT— HIS  DEATH. 

A.  D.  1853,  1854.     JET.  74  TO  75. 

AS  it  was  evident  that  no  benefit  was  to  be  hoped 
for  from  a  prolonged  residence  abroad,  Denman, 
under  the  care  of  his  son  and  daughter-in-law,  left 
Nice  for  England  in  April,  1853,  and  returned  to  his 
well-loved  home  at  Stony  Middleton,  then  in  the  occu- 
pation of  his  second  daughter,  Mrs.  Hodgson,  and  her 
children. 

Mrs.  Hodgson  had  become  a  widow  during  her 
father's  absence  in  Italy,  the  Provost  having  sunk  under 
the  effects  of  a  severe  attack  of  influenza,  on  December 
29,  1852,  only  a  few  weeks  after  the  final  stroke  of  par- 
alysis which  had  prostrated  his  old  friend  and  father-in- 
law.  The  end  of  Francis  Hodgson  had  been  painless 
and  peaceful.  As  he  lay  rapidly  sinking  from  exhaustion, 
he  faintly  exclaimed  "  How  beautiful !  "  and  in  reply  to 
a  question  from  his  wife,  who  had  asked,  "  What,  dear, 
is  so  beautiful?"  his  answer  was,  "  The  mercy  of  God/' 
and  so  he  passed  away.1 

Denman  had  immediately  acceded  to  a  suggestion  that 
the  widow  and  children,  who  were  left  rather  slenderly 
provided  for,  should  thenceforth  make  their  home  at 
Stony  Middleton,  where,  accordingly,  he  found  them  on 
his  return. 

Mrs.  Cropper,  who  had  gone  over  to  Stony  Middleton 
to  meet  her  father,  thus  describes  the  interview : — 

"  I  remember,  very  well,  going  to  see  my  father  on  his 
return  from  Nice,  after  the  blow  which  had  deprived 

1  Hodgson  was  about  three  years  younger  than  Denman,  having  been 
born  on  November  16,  1781  (Denman  in  February,  1779):  he  was  a  little 
over  seventy-one  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


272  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.        [1853— 

him  of  speech.  The  widow  and  children  of  the  Provost, 
Hodgson  (who  had  died  during  my  father's  absence  from 
England),  were  at  the  moment  gathered  round  him.  It 
was  his  first  meeting  with  them  after  their  sad  and  irre- 
parable loss.  My  little  boy,  Joseph,  was  with  me.  He 
was  a  very  lively,  bright  child,  and  unconscious  of  any 
sorrow.  He  went  merrily  into  the  room,  and  at  the 
sight  of  him  something  touched  my  dear  father,  and  he 
then  wept  freely,  tears  not  having  come  before  from 
him  in  the  course  of  this  sorrowful  meeting." 

For  nearly  a  year  after  his  return  to  England,  Den- 
man  remained  at  Stony  Middleton,  amid  the  woods 
which  in  happier  days  his  right  hand  had  planted,  and 
the  lawns  and  gardens  he  had  made  so  beautiful  for  him- 
self— tenderly  waited  on  and  soothed  by  his  sons  and 
daughters,  his  sons-in-law  and  daughters-in-law,  and 
their  children,  some  of  whom  were  always  with  him — 
Admiral  and  Lady  Baynes,  or  some  other  members  of 
his  numerous  family  supplying  the  place  of  Mrs.  Hodg- 
son, during  her  brief  absences  at  Brighton  or  elsewhere. 

Mrs.  Hodgson's  account  of  her  father's  bearing  under 
his  sore  affliction  is  very  interesting ;  "  We  all  of  us," 
she  writes,  "  loved  and  reverenced  him  before  as  deeply 
as  we  thought  it  possible ;  but  his  noble  constancy,  his 
uniform  good  humor,  his  unwearied  and  heroic  patience 
under  suffering,  filled  us  with  a  new  sentiment  of  the 
profoundest  veneration." 

He  found  his  chief  solace  in  reading  and  being  read 
to.  The  Bible  was  his  constant  study  ;  never  a  day 
passed  without  his  reading  in  it:  he  also  took  great  de- 
light in  the  dramatists,  not  only  in  Shakespeare,  but  in 
the  two  great  masters  of  the  French  drama,  Corneille 
and  Racine — the  grand  Roman  roll  of  the  one,  and 
the  exquisitely  tender  pathos  of  the  other,  giving  him 
infinite  pleasure.  One  day,  a  little  before  his  death, 
feeling  no  doubt  the  rapid  decay  of  his  strength,  he 
pointed  out  to  his  eldest  son  that  grand  line  of  Cor- 
neille,— 

"  J'  attends  la  mort  sans  1'espoir  ni  la  crainte." 

But  what  he  most  enjoyed  was  being  read  to  ;  and 
here  occasionally  (it  was  the  only  point  in  which  he  was 
so)  he  was  a  little  exacting.  To  read  the  Times 


1854.]     DENMAN    IN    HIS    LAST    DAYS.         273 

newspaper  to  him  daily,  omitting  nothing  that  was  of 
interest  or  importance,  was  the  loving  labor  for  many 
months  of  those  who  watched  over  him.  If  anything 
was  omitted,  he  was  quick  to  find  it  out,  giving  the 
reader  by  an  expressive  look  an  intimation  that  he  or 
she  "  had  been  skipping." 

Mrs.  Hodgson  tells  a  story  of  one  of  their  readings 
which  shows  he  had  not  lost  his  once  keen  power  of 
being  amused,  or  what  Mr.  Carlyle  would  call  "  his 
healthy  faculty  "  of  hearty  laughter. 

The  reader  on  the  occasion  in  question,  was  one  ot 
Mrs.  Hodgson's  daughters,  then  quite  a  little  girl,  and  the 
book  was  the  life  of  Theodore  Hook,  in  a  particular  por- 
tion of  which — that  relating  to  the  Berners  Street  story 
— the  word  "hoax"  repeatedly  occurs.  This  the  child, 
whenever  she  came  to  it,  uniformly  pronounced  as  a  dis- 
syllable, "  ho-ax"  which  so  amused  Denman  that  when 
Mrs.  Hodgson  came  into  the  room  she  found  him  roar- 
ing with  laughter,  which  he  could  only  explain  by  caus- 
ing the  book  to  be  brought  to  him,  pointing  out  the 
word,  and  making  the  child  read  it  again,  which,  to  his 
great  delight,  she  immediately  did  in  the  same  manner 
as  before. 

His  courteous  observance  of  all  polite  usages  whcic 
ladies  were  concerned  was  not  at  all  diminished  by  his 
state  of  infirmity:  every  day  at  Middleton  he  caused 
himself  to  be  dressed  for  the  family  dinner  as  carefully 
as  though  he  had  been  going  to  Holland  House  or 
Chatsworth. 

He  delighted  in  his  daily  drives  in  the  neighborhood  ; 
and  in  being  wheeled  slowly  about  the  garden  in  a  bath- 
chair.  He  had  preserved  quite  unimpaired  his  fondness 
for  scenery,  his  delight  in  pictures,  and  his  passion  for 
flowers. 

On  the  whole,  owing  to  his  admirable  self-restraint, 
patience  and  gentleness,  aided  by  the  loving  care  of  a 
family  who  vied  with  one  another  in  gratifying  his  every 
wish  and  anticipating  his  every  want,  he  was  enabled  to 
pass,  with  subdued  but  tolerable  cheerfulness,  through 
a  state  of  severe  trial,  that  by  many  would  have  been 
converted  into  a  period  of  protracted  torment  both  to 
themselves  and  all  around  them, 
ii.— 18 


274  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN.  [1853— 

In  the  spring  of  1854,  Mrs.  Hodgson  having  been 
obliged  to  leave  Stony  Middleton,  Denman  went  to 
reside  with  his  eldest  son  and  his  eldest  son's  first  wife, 
at  Stoke  Albany,  in  Northampton,  where  his  brother- 
in-law,  Vevers,  had  once  been  rector.  There  he  remained 
till  his  death,  the  object  of  as  holy  and  tender  a  solici- 
tude and  affection  as  were  ever  bestowed  on  a  beloved 
parent.  Denman  had  once  said  to  that  eldest  son,  that 
"  he  was  afraid  to  tell  him  how  much  he  loved  him  :"  it 
was  now  the  son's  turn  to  prove  to  the  father  the  price- 
less worth  and  solace  of  true  filial  devotion. 

It  was  known  that  Denman  liked  to  be  written  to ; 
and  many  letters,  which  he  has  preserved,  from  Patteson, 
Coleridge,  and  others  of  his  old  friends,  show  how  amia- 
bly and  solicitously  they,  in  this  respect,  endeavored  to 
contribute  to  his  gratification.  Among  the  letters  of 
this  class,  and  they  were  many,  which  Denman  received 
through  his  long  illness,  three  must  have  given  him 
peculiar  pleasure — two  from  the  venerable  Samuel 
Rogers,  then  long  past  his  8oth  year,  and  one  from  the 
good  and  amiable  Duke  of  Devonshire,  whose  kindness 
to  Denman  and  his  family  survived  through  all  chances 
and  changes  to  the  end. 

On  March  24,  1853,  Rogers  writes,  in  his  small,  ex- 
quisitely delicate  "  Italian  hand,"  showing  no  sign  of  age 
or  shakiness : 

"  My  dear  Friend, — How  can  I  thank  you  for  your 
many  kind  inquiries  after  me,  and  for  the  little  book, 
which  I  have  read  with  great  delight  ?  Your  friendship 
and  your  benevolence  never  sleep  night  or  day.  As  for 
me,  I  am  as  well  as  I  can  hope  to  be,  and  you  are 
always  in  my  thoughts.  I  can  never  forget  you,  here  or 
hereafter. 

"SAMUEL  ROGERS. 

"22  St.  James's  Place:  March  14, 1853." 

The  next  is  of  some  six  months'  later  date: 

"  September  28,  1854. 

"  My  dear  Friend, — I  need  not  say  with  what  delight 
I  have  read  your  letter  from  Stony  Middleton.1 

"  Pray  give  my  love  to  one  and  all  there.  As  I  am 
not  with  you,  and  must  be  elsewhere,  I  am  here  consol- 

1  Written  for  him  by  Mrs.  Hodgson,  he  having  read  and  approved  of  it. 


1854-]      LETTERS    FROM    ROGERS,     ETC.          275 

ing  myself  by  the  seaside,  and  wishing  you  were  all  with 
me,  not  omitting  the  young  voices1  that  are  rejoicing 
you  all  day  long. 

"  I  am  as  well  as  I  can  hope  to  be,  but  should  be 
better  if  I  could  transport  myself  where  you  are  ;  for  so 
great  a  pleasure  I  would  resign  the  waves  of  this  beauti- 
ful sea,  and  the  thousand  '  Ladyes '  on  horseback  who 
are  passing  before  me. 

"  Ever  most  affectionately  yours, 

"  SAMUEL  ROGERS. 

"  I  can  not  say  how  much  I  think  myself  obliged  to  her 
who  has  written  your  charming  letter. 

"  79  Marine  Parade,  Brighton." 

The  letter  from  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  written  in 
the  winter  o'f  1854,  is  also  from  Brighton,  and  contains  a 
reference  to  the  venerable  poet : 

"  Brighton  :  February  17,  1854. 

"  My  dear  Lord, — You  can  not  think  how  much  I  am 
delighted  with  the  lines  you  send  me,"  and  by  your  hav- 
ing written  them  out  yourself  for  me.  I  think  them 
most  beautiful  and  touching ;  and,  besides,  as  they  are 
copied  in  your  hand,  I  shall  always  keep  and  consider 
them  as  a  great  treasure. 

"  I  must  add,  besides,  that  you  have  been  the  means 
of  my  having  a  great  satisfaction — that  of  giving  pleasure 
to  poor  Rogers  on  seeing  him  to-day.  I  read  the  verses 
out  loud  to  him,  and  it  appeared  to  me  that  he  admired 
and  liked  them  very  much  indeed.  When  he  saw  your 
handwriting,  he  kissed  it. 

"  I  called  afterwards,  in  hopes  of  showing  my  acquisi- 
tion to  Mrs.  Hodgson,8  but  she  was  out,  and  I  found 
afterwards  had  called  on  me  with  James  [novelist],  who 
is  to  be  shown  my  bird's-nest  of  a  house  one  of  these 
days. 

"  Receive  a  thousand  thanks  from  me,  my  dear  Lord 
Denman,  And  believe  me, 

"  Your  faithful  and  most  attached  servant, 

"  DEVONSHIRE." 

1  Of  Mrs.  Hodgson's  children. 

2  Copying  verses  that  struck  him  in  reading,  and  sending  them,  when 
copied,  was  one  of  Denman's  substitutes  for  correspondence.     What  the 
lines  here  alluded  to  were,  is  not  known. 

*  Denman  was  now  at  Stoke  Albany  and  Mrs.  Hodgson  at  Brighton. 


276  LIFE    OF    LORD    DENMAN.  [1853— 

There  is  one  more  letter  of  this  last  period  which  must 
still  be  added :  it  is  from  Mrs.  Stowe,  who,  in  the  spring 
of  the  year  1853,  had  come  over  to  Europe,  and  been  re- 
ceived by  the  flower  of  the  English  matronhood  with 
the  homage  which  was  her  due :  but  who,  greatly  to  her 
sorrow,  had  been  unable  to  see  Lord  Denman,  then 
secluded  from  the  world  under  the  dark  cloud  of  affliction 
and  disease.  Soon  after  her  return  to  America  she  sent 
him  the  following  very  beautiful  letter,  which  reached 
him,  probably,  towards  the  close  of  1853,  or  in  the  early 
part  of  1854:  ' 

"  Dear  and  venerated  Friend, — It  was  the  hope  of  my 
heart,  when  I  left  America  for  England,  that  I  should 
have  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  an  interview  with 
your  Lordship.  How  was  my  heart  saddened  when 
on  my  arrival  I  found  that  the  heavy  hand  of  dis- 
ease had  been  laid  upon  you,  and  that  I  could  not 
hope  for  that  pleasure !  But  I  trust,  my  Lord,  that 
you  have  learned  that  the  pressure  of  this  sore  afflic- 
tion is  after  all  but  the  weight  of  a  Father's  hand, 
and  that  the  privation  which  secludes  you  from  human 
intercourse  and  society  is  but  the  overshadowing  of 
the  wings  of  the  Almighty,  bringing  your  soul  nearer 
to  God. 

"  My  Lord,  may  it  console  and  bless  you  to  think  that 
you  have  to  the  last  and  latest  extent  given  your  noble 
powers  to  a  most  worthy  and  sacred  cause,  a  cause  dear 
to  the  heart  of  that  Saviour  who  came  to  bring  liberty 
to  the  captive  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  those 
who  are  bound. 

"  No  great  good  is  ever  gained  to  man  without  the 
suffering  of  the  good.  Jesus  Himself,  the  Captain  of 
our  Salvation,  was  made  perfect  only  through  suffering ; 
and  may  you,  my  Lord,  be  among  those  who  count  it 
blessedness  to  endure  affliction. 

"  May  that  Redeemer  whose  consolations  are  nearer 
and  more  intimate  than  those  of  earthly  friendship, 
bless  you.  May  the  Holy  Comforter  dwell  with  you  ', 
and  may  all  this  light  affliction,  which  endureth  but  for 

1  Mrs.  Stowe  arrived  at  Liverpool  from  the  United  States  on  April  II. 
1853,  and  left  England,  on  her  return,  on  September  7 


1854.]  HIS  DEATH— ITS  COMMEMORATION.  277 

a  moment,  work  out  for  you  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory. 

"  With  affectionate  veneration, 

"  Your  sincere  admirer  and  friend, 

"  H.  B.  STOWE." 

There  is  a  tone  of  holy  and  religious  thought  about 
that  beautiful  letter,  like  a  strain  of  solemn  music,  that 
harmonizes  with  the  close  of  this  long  and  eventful  life- 
•  Irama. 

For  now  the  end  was  drawing  very  near.  It  came  at 
last,  as  often  happens,  somewhat  unexpectedly  ;  but  not 
so  suddenly  as  to  prevent  the  assemblage  round  his 
death-bed  of  all  the  principal  members  of  his  large  and 
deeply  attached  family.  Consciousness  remained  to  the 
last.  Looks  expressive  of  a  yearning  love  and  tender- 
ness, kisses,  and  close  embraces  were  not  wanting.  At 
length,  as  though  the  bonds  of  speech  were  burst  sud- 
denly asunder  by  the  pressure  of  thoughts  struggling 
for  utterance,  he  lifted  up  his  voice  with  a  loud  cry,  and 
in  the  effort  breathed  out  his  life. 

Lord  Denman  died  on  September  22,  1854,  aged  a 
little  over  seventy-five  years  and  seven  months. 

He  lies  buried  in  Stoke  Albany  churchyard, 
where  a  stone  with  a  short  and  plain  inscription  was 
placed  over  his  grave  by  his  eldest  son,  in  record  of 
the  last  resting  place  "  of  the  great  and  good  Lord 
Denman." 

His  fourth  daughter,  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Cropper,  with  the 
co-operation  of  several  other  members  of  the  family, 
and  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  his  old  friends 
and  brother  Judges,  among  whom  may  be  mentioned 
Lord  Brougham,  Lord  Wensleydale,  Sir  John  Taylor 
Coleridge,  and  Chief  Justice  Erie,  caused  a  memorial 
window  and  monument  to  be  set  up  in  remembrance  of 
him,  in  the  Church  of  Penshurst  in  Kent,  the  parish  in 
which,  "  Swaylands,"  the  country  residence  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Cropper,  is  situated. 

In  the  inscription  on  the  brass  plate  beneath  the  win- 
dow are  the  two  following  sentences,  which  fitly  com- 
memorate his  public  and  his  private  virtues  : — 

"  In  discharging  the  duties  of  his  high  office,  without 
ever  losing  sight  of  the  civil  or  religious  liberties  of  the 


278  LIFE    OF    LORD    DEN  MAN, 

people,  he  was  vigilant  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  the 
constituted  authorities  and  the  law  of  the  land. 

"  In  private  life,  he  was  a  dutiful  son,  a  tender  hus- 
band, an  affectionate  father,  a  delightful  companion,  a 
faithful  friend,  and  a  sincere  Christian." 

There  was  a  strain  of  high  and  antique  nobleness  in 
Denman's  character  that  well  entitled  him  to  such  a  me- 
mento within  the  precincts  of  that  venerable  mansion 
and  those  ancient  groves,  that  are  so  inseparably  associ- 
ated with  the  name  of  him  who  fell  at  Zutphen — that 
"  gentle  mirror  of  true  and  perfect  chivalry  " — Sir  Philip 
Sidney. 

But  there  was  that  also  in  his  career  which  might  seem 
not  unjustly  to  have  earned  for  him  some  monumental 
record  among  the  national  worthies  of  England.  Had 
his  death  followed  closely  on  his  resignation,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  such  a  commemoration  might  have 
been  accorded  ;  but  the  four  years  of  disease  and  decay 
which  intervened,  had  withdrawn  him  from  the  observa- 
tion of  the  public,  and  when  he  passed  away,  amid  the 
excitement  of  the  Crimean  War,  the  mind  of  the  nation 
was  set  on  other  things. 

Nearly  twenty  years  have  gone  by  since  then,  but  it 
may  well  be  doubted  whether  in  all  that  interval  any 
higher  minded  citizen  or  better  man  has  descended  into 
the  grave.  Is  it  too  late  to  repair  the  long  omission  ? 
Is  there  any  good  reason  why,  by  the  contributions  of 
those — and  they  must  be  numerous — who  admire  his 
character  and  career,  a  memorial  bust  might  not  even 
now  be  placed  in  Westminster  Abbey,  which  might 
perpetuate  in  marble,  for  the  veneration  of  posterity, 
the  noble  lineaments  of  the  "  good  and  great "  Chief 
Justice  ? 


APPENDIX. 


Selections  from  Lord  Denmaris  Verses 
I.  TRANSLATIONS. 

THE  LAMENT  OF  DANAE.* 
(From  Simonides,  7,  i,  121.) 

When  the  wind,  resounding  high, 
Blustered  from  the  northern  sky  ; 
When  the  waves  in  stronger  tide 
Dashed  against  the  vessel's  side  ; 
Her  careworn  cheeks  with  tears  bedewed, 
Her  sleeping  infant  Danae  viewed  ; 
And  trembling  still  with  new  alarms 
Around  him  cast  a  mother's  arms. 
'"  My  child  !  what  woes  does  Danae  weep, 
But  thy  young  limbs  are  wrapt  in   sleep. 
In  that  poor  nook,  all  sad  and  dark, 
While  lightnings  play  about  our  bark, 
Thy  quiet  bosom  only  knows 
The  heavy  sigh  of  deep  repose. 

"  The  howling  wind,  the  raging  sea, 
No  terror  can  excite  in  thee  ; 
The  angry  surges  wake  no  care 
That  burst  above  thy  long  deep  hair: 
But  couldst  thou  feel  what  I  deplore, 
Then  would  I  bid  thee  sleep  the  more  ! 
Sleep  on,  sweet  boy,  still  be  the  deep  ! 
Oh,  could  I  lull  my  woes  to  sleep  ! 
Jove,  let  thy  mighty  hand  o'erthrow 
The  baffled  malice  of  my  foe ; 
And  may  this  child,  in  future  years, 
Avenge  his  mother's  wrongs  and  tears." 

Anthology,  p.  360.     Ed.  1813. 

ODE  TO  THE  ATHENIAN  PATRIOTS. 
(From  Callistratus,  Seal.  7,  I,  155.) 

I'll  wreathe  my  sword  in  myrtle  bough, 
The  sword  that  laid  the  tyrant  low, 
When  patriots,  burning  to  be  free, 
To  Athens  gave  equality. 

1  These  lines  were  written  while  Lord  Denman  was  still  at  Eton. 


280  APPENDIX. 

Harmodius,  hail  !  tho'  reft  of  breath, 
Thou  ne'er  shall  feel  the  stroke  of  death  : 
The  Heroes'  happy  isles  shall  be 
The  bright  abode  allotted  thee. 

I'll  wreathe  the  sword  in  myrtle  bough, 
The  sword  that  laid  Hipparchus  low, 
When  at  Minerva's  adverse  fane 
He  knelt,  and  never  rose  again. 

While  Freedom's  name  is  understood, 
You  shall  delight  the  wise  and  good  ; 
You  dared  to  set  your  country  free 
And  gave  her  laws  equality. 

Anthology,  p.  122. 

ANOTHER  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  SAME.1 

In  myrtle  my  sword  will  I  wreathe, 
Like  our  patriots,  the  noble  and  brave, 

Who  devoted  the  tyrant  to  death, 
And  to  Athens  equality  gave  ! 

Loved  Harmodius,  thou  never  shalt  die  ! 

The  poets  exulting]  y  tell 
That  thine  is  the  fullness  of  joy 

Where  Achilles  and  Diomed  dwell. 

In  myrtle  my  sword  will  I  wreathe, 
Like  our  patriots,  the  noble  and  brave 

Who  devoted  Hipparchus  to  death, 
And  buried  his  pride  in  the  grave. 

At  the  altar  the  tyrant  they  seized, 

While  Minerva  he  vainly  implored  ; 
And  the  Goddess  of  Wisdom  was  pleased 

With  the  victim  of  Liberty's  sword. 

May  your  bliss  be  immortal  on  high 

Among  men  as  your  glory  shall  be  : 
Ye  doomed  the  usurper  to  die, 

And  bade  our  dear  country  be  free. 

Anthology,  p.  123,  124.. 


CHORUS  FROM  THE  ANDROMACHE  OF  EURIPIDES 

To  lofty  Ilion  when  the  Spartan  dame 

Was  led,  all  blooming,  by  her  shepherd  boy, 
Majestic  to  the  princely  couch  she  came, 

No  consort,  but  a  curse  to  him  and  Troy. 
For  her,  O  Troy !  against  thy  menaced  town 

Greece  brought  her  thousand  ships,  her  fire  and  sword, 
Her  rapid  vengeance  mow'd  thy  bulwarks  down, 

And  slew  thy  best  defense,  my  dear  loved  lord. 

1  This  is  the  translation  which  Byron  so  much  admired.     See  note  to 
twentieth  stanza  of  the  third  canto  of  "  Childe  Harold." 


APPENDIX.  281 

Yes — round  those  walls  the  savage  conqueror  bore, 

Bound  to  his  car,  the  body  of  the  brave  : 
Torn  from  my  bride-bed  to  a  hostile  shore, 

I  live  to  feel  what  'tis  to  be  a  slave. 
While  round  the  awful  form  the  Goddess  rears, 

Driv'n  by  hard  threats,  my  suppliant  arms  are  thrown, 
I  melt,  dissolving  in  perpetual  tears, 

Like  drops  that  tremble  from  a  roof  of  stone.^ 

Anthology,  p.  261. 

TRANSLATION  FROM  MILTON'S  SIXTH  ITALIAN  SONNET. 

A  simple  youth,  a  lover  most  sincere, 

Since  now,  alas  !  your  converse  I  must  leave, 
To  you,  fair  maid,  my  true  heart  let  me  g'.ve, 

A  parting  present,  which  through  many  a  year 

Faithful,  intrepid,  constant,  I  have  known, 

Courteous,  and  mild,  and  kind  in  every  thought: 
Amid  the  great  world's  tumults  tempest-fraught, 

It  seeks  for  succor  in  itself  alone. 

Far  above  Fortune's  power  and  Envy  base 
The  hopes  and  fears  that  vulgar  minds  abuse, 

Genius  and  Honor  and  Song's  soothing  art 
It  dearly  prizes,  and  adores  the  Muse. 

'Tis  only  somewhat  softer  in  that  place 

Which  Love  has  wounded  with  his  cureless  dart. 

The  above  are  all  youthful  compositions.  In  the 
later  years  of  his  life  Lord  Denman  recurred,  as  one  of 
the  favorite  amusements  of  his  leisure,  to  his  early  habit 
of  translation,  especially  from  Horace.  The  follof/ing 
are  some  of  those  which  have  been  preserved  among  his 
papers : — 

HORAC.    BOOK  i,  ODE  3. 
Sic  te  Diva  potens  Cypri. 

So  may  the  potent  Cyprian  queen 

So  Helen's  brothers,  stars  of  silvery  sheen, 

And  he  of  winds  the  lord  and  sire, 

Only  lapyx  suffering  to  respire, 

Guide  thee,  O  ship,  intrusted  to  convey 

The  dearer  portion  of  my  life  away  ! 

Preserve  thy  sacred  charge  and  land 

My  Virgil  safely  on  the  Athenian  strand. 

A  breast  of  oak  and  brass  had  he, 
Who  first  committed  to  the  ruthless  sea 
His  fragile  bark ;  nor  feared  the  roar 
Of  gales  fierce  struggling  from  the  Libyan  shore, 
With  tempests  from  the  north  ;  nor  showers 
Of  the  sad  Hyads,  nor  the  raging  powers 
Of  Him  who  with  a  master's  pride 
Swells  Adria  s  waves  or  bids  their  wrath  subside. 


282  APPENDIX. 


What  death  could  daunt  his  soul  with  awe, 
Who  with  dry  eyes  the  wallowing  monsters  saw, 
The  turgid  main  with  ruin  spread, 
And  th'  Acroceraunian  crags  lowering  like  Fate  ahead  ?     IX 

In  vain  wise  Jove  has  planned 
The  severing  ocean  to  part  land  from  land, 
If  impious  ships  may  freely  dare 
To  leap  across  the  gulfs  by  him  established  there. 

Braving  Heav'n's  wrath,  the  audacious  mind 
Thro'  each  forbidden  outrage  drags  mankind. 
Prometheus,  bolder  than  his  sire, 
Purloined  for  Man  the  elemental  Fire  ; 
From  Fire  brought  down  to  Man,  a  birth 
Of  Plague  and  Fever  brooded  over  Earth ; 
And  to  Death's  erst  remote  abode 
Necessity  cut  short  the  lingering  road. 
With  wings  for  mortals  never  made 
Did  Daedalus  the  void  of  air  invade ; 
Hell's  barrier  Hercules  laid  low  ; 
To  Heaven  itself  our  mad  desires  would  go  ; 
Nor  suffer  Jove,  through  our  rebellious  pride, 
To  lay  his  angry  thunderbolts  aside. 


BOOK  i.     ODE  9.     (November,  1849.) 

Vides  ut  alia  stet  nive  candidum 
Soracte. 

Dost  thou  not  see  Soracte's  height 
With  depth  of  snow  is  dazzling  white  ? 
The  woods  no  more  their  weight  sustain, 
The  streams  are  bound  in  icy  chain. 

Dissolve  the  cold,  while  on  the  dogs 
With  lavish  hand  you  fling  the  logs, 
And,  Thaliarchus,  from  your  store 
The  four  years'  wine  more  freely  pour. 

Trust  with  the  gods  the  rest,  whose  will 
Can  bid  the  warring  winds  be  still, 
Cypress  and  ancient  ash  tree  cease 
Their  strife,  and  lift  their  heads  in  peace. 

Seek  not  the  morrow  to  foresee, 
And  each  fresh  day,  whate'er  it  be, 
Deem  so  much  gained,  nor,  madly  wise, 
Oh,  Boy,  the  dame  of  love  despise. 

Ere  hoary  Age,  morose,  uncouth, 
Check  the  free  sports  of  blooming  youth, 
Let  gentle  whispers,  low  yet  clear, 
Breathe  in  soft  Twilight's  secret  ear  ; 

While  shrilling  forth  from  darkened  shade 
The  laugh  betrays  the  lurking  maid, 
Then  from  white  arms  be  bracelets  torn, 
From  fingers  rings  too  loosely  worn. 


APPENDIX.  283 

BOOK  i.    ODE  14. 

0  navis,  referent  in  mare  te  novi 
Flucttts  ? 

Oh  ship,  the  boiling  waves  again 
Would  drive  thee  to  the  stormy  main  ; 
What  dost  thou  ?  see  thy  naked  side 
With  oars  yet  unsupplied. 

Thy  bowsprit  sprung,  thy  stately  mast 
Split  with  wild  Afric's  furious  blast ; 
No  ropes,  thy  threatened  keel  to  save, 
Lashed  by  the  tyrant  wave  ; 

No  sails  entire — no  gods  to  hear 

The  cry  of  thy  distress  and  fear, 

O  gallant  daughter  of  the  wood 

On  the  proud  hill  that  stood, 

The  frowning  guard  of  Pontus'  coast, 
Thy  name,  thy  race,  an  empty  boast ; 
The  wretched  seaman,  vexed  with  storms, 
Mocks  at  the  noblest  forms. 

The  winds  make  sport  of  thee — Beware  ! 
My  fear,  my  wearying  burden  of  sad  care ! 
Oh,  may  you  fly  the  fierce  tide's  dangerous  shocks 
'Mid  the  Cycladean  rocks. 


BOOK  i.    ODE  22. 
Integer  vitcz,  scelerisque  purus. 

The  honest  man,  whose  life  is  pure, 
Needs  not  the  javelin  of  the  Moor, 
Nor  bow,  nor  quiver  teeming  with  the  darts 
Whose  poison  reaches  hearts. 

Whether  through  Syrte's  eddying  sands  he  go, 
Or  wild  Caucasian  mountain  heaped  with  snow, 
Or  the  far  realms  where,  fabled  in  old  song, 
Hydaspes  rolls  along. 

For  late,  when  in  the  Sabine  grove, 
I,  careless  wandering,  sang  my  love — 
My  Lalage — a  wolf,  the  shepherd's  dfead, 
Saw  me  unarmed — and  fled. 

A  monster,  whose  portentous  jaw 
Exceeds  whatever  Daunia  saw, 
Or,  nurse  of  lions — Juba's  land, 
Bred  in  her  arid  sand. 

Place  me  in  those  dull  fields  whose  trees 
Are  freshened  by  no  summer  breeze, 
The  region  ever  doomed  to  bear 
Foul  fogs  and  filthy  air. 


284  APPENDIX. 

Or,  where  the  houseless  desert  feels 
Too  near  the  hot  sun's  burning  wheels, 
E'en  there  will  I  in  Lalage  rejoice — 
Sweet  smile,  and  sweeter  voice. 

BOOK  i.    ODE  24. 
Quis  desiderio  sit pudor  aut  modus. 

Why  blush  to  weep,  why  check  the  tear 
For  one  so  honored  and  so  dear, 
Mourn,  O  Melpomene,  to  whom  the  Sire 
Gave  melting  voice  and  lyre. 

In  endless  sleep  Quinctilius  lies — 
Modesty,  Truth  without  disguise, 
Sister  to  Justice,  Honor  clear, 
When  shall  they  find  his  peer  ? 

Bewailed  by  all  the  good  his  fall, 
By  thee,  my  Virgil,  most  of  all  ; 
Pious  in  vain  thy  prayers  ascend 
To  ask  of  Heaven  thy  friend. 

Could'st  thou,  like  Orpheus,  move  the  trees, 
And  even  with  sweeter  melodies, 
The  life  blood  could  no  more  pervade 
The  disembodied  shade 

Which  Hermes,  with  relentless  wand 
Once  drives  among  his  sable  band — 
Hard  Fate !  but  Patience,  though  it  can  not  cure, 
Yet  soothes  what  men  endure 


BOOK  ii.    ODE  6. 
Seftimi,  Cades  aditure  mccum,  et. 

Dear  fellow  traveler  to  that  land 
Unconquered  still  by  Roman  hand  ; 
To  Gades,  and  the  fretful  shores 
Where  still  the  Moorish  whirlpool  roars. 

Let  Tibur  be  my  final  rest, 
My  weary  age's  quiet  nest ; 
That  peaceful  haven  let  me  gain, 
From  war,  from  travel,  and  the  main. 

If  Fate  forbids,  I'll  seek  the  brink 
Of  sweet  Galesas'  stream,  where  drink 
The  fleecy  flocks  that  haunt  the  plain, 
Laconian  Phalantus'  reign. 

That  nook  of  earth,  that  lovely  coast, 
Smiles  on  my  captive  fancy  most : 
Whose  honey  not  to  Hybla  yields, 
Nor  olive  to  Venafran  fields. 


APPENDIX.  285 

Clime  favored  by  the  Heavenly  King, 
With  winter  mild,  and  lengthened  spring, 
Where  friendly  Aalon  bids  the  vine 
Richly  pour  forth  Falerniaii  wine. 

That  spot  beloved,  those  towers,  attend 
My  presence  not  without  my  friend ; 
And  of  the  bard  you  now  hold  dear 
The  ashes  there  shall  claim  your  tear. 

BOOK  ii.    ODE  10. 
Rectius  vives,  Licini,  neque  altum. 

Wisely  Licinius  live,  nor  urge 
The  open  ocean's  furious  surge  ; 
Nor,  whilst  you  fear  the  tempest's  roar, 
Too  closely  hug  the  treacherous  shore. 

The  lover  of  the  golden  mean 
Is  not  in  sordid  dwelling  seen, 
Nor  wakes  the  envy  that  will  fall 
On  him  who  boasts  his  pompous  hall. 

The  loftiest  pine  that  scorns  the  vale 
Must  quiver  in  the  wintry  gale  ; 
High  towers  with  heavier  ruin  break ; 
The  lightnings  smite  the  highest  peak. 

In  minds  well  schooled,  a  fate  severe 
Destroys  not  hope — a  kind  fate,  fear. 
Great  Jove,  who  bids  the  tempest  rage, 
Will  smooth  with  halcyon  smiles  the  wave. 

Ill  fortune,  changing,  may  relent ; 
Not  always  Phcebus'  bow  is  bent ; 
His  happier  mood  may  strike  e'er  long 
The  lyre,  and  wake  the  Muse  to  song. 

Bold  be  your  spirit  when  the  blow 
Of  Fortune  seeks  to  lay  you  low, 
And  wisely  reef  the  sails  that  swell 
When  prosperous  gales  too  fast  impel. 

BOOK  3.    ODE  6. 
Delicta  majorum  immeritus  lues. 

The  evils  wrought  in  other  times, 
O  Roman  !  thy  forefathers'  crimes, 

'Tis  thine  to  suffer  and  deplore, 
Till  all  the  images  divine, 
And  every  godhead's  crumbling  shrine, 

Thy  pious  penitence  restore. 

The  power  to  rule  on  Earth  is  given 

By  that  o'erruling  power  in  Heaven, 

The  Sovereign  Arbiter  of  fate, 


286  APPENDIX. 

Whose  favor,  sought,  thy  greatness  wills  ; 
Neglected,  showers  ten  thousand  ills 
On  sad  Hesperia's  ruined  state. 

Twice  did  Moneses  and  the  band 
Of  Pacoris  our  assaults  withstand, 

(Efforts  how  vain,  by  Heaven  unblest !) 
And  on  their  swelling  bosom  wore 
The  very  necklace  which  before 

Had  glittered  on  a  Roman  breast. 

Dacian,  who  hurls  his  darts  afar, 
And  Ethiop,  fierce  in  ocean  war, 

Glorying  had  seen  their  prostrate  prey 
By  faction  weakened  and  debased, 
Wellnigh  had  laid  our  city  waste, 

And  swept  her  name  from  Earth  away. 

For  Vice  at  first  had  dared  despise 
Connubial  rites,  domestic  ties, 

The  cherished  sanctity  of  Home, 
And,  rushing  from  that  turbid  source 
Disaster  whelmed  with  torrent  force 

Imperial  and  corrupted  Rome. 

Oh,  never  from  such  parents  sprung 

The  Roman  youths,  when  Rome  Was  young, 

Who  dyed  with  Punic  blood  the  wave, 
Who  the  dire  Hannibal  laid  low, 
And  Pyrrhus  and  each  mighty  foe 

Armed  for  our  fall,  to  ruin  gave. 

No  !  but  a  manly  offspring  born 
Of  warrior  peasants,  taught  at  morn 

To  delve  with  Sabine  spades  the  land, 
In  vigorous  sport  to  wield  at  eve 
The  massy  cudgel,  and  receive 

War's  weapons  from  a  mother's  hand. 

When  Sol  now  pointed  to  the  East 
The  mountain  shadows — man  and  beast 

Ceased  work,  with  daylong  toil  oppressed ; 
And  his  departing  chariot's  flight 
Brought  on  the  friendly  hour  of  night, 

The  hour  of  darkness  and  of  rest.1 


BOOK  in.     ODE  9. 
Donee  gratus  eram  tibi. 

HORACE. 
While  I  was  loved  by  thee,  as  now 

Is  loved  that  favored  youth  who  flings 
His  arms  around  thy  neck  of  snow, 
I  lived  more  blest  than  Persian  kings. 

1  The  sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  and  last  stanzas  of  the  original  have  been 
left  untranslated  by  Lord  Denman. 


APPENDIX. 


LYDIA. 
Ere  Chloe  was  to  me  preferred, 

Ere  thou  hadst  felt  her  warmer  flame, 
Then  Lydia's  high  renown  was  heard, 

Surpassing  Ilia's  honored  name. 

HORACE. 
Now  Cretan  Chloe  is  my  care, 

Skilled  in  soft  lute  and  airs  divine  ; 
Her  cherished  life,  if  Fate  would  spare, 

I,  fearless,  could  my  own  resign. 

LYDIA. 
The  youthful  Calais  stirs  my  breast, 

The  Thurian's  son,  with  mutual  lire  ; 
Twice  would  I  die  to  save  him,  blest 

In  double  anguish  to  expire. 

HORACE. 
What  if  our  ancient  love  return 

And  join  the  hearts  that  now  are  twain  ; 
If  I  the  gold-haired  Chloe  spurn, 

And  woo  my  Lydia  once  again. 

LYDIA. 
Though  he  be  fairer  than  a  star, 

Thou  light  as  cork,  and  than  the  sea 
On  Adria's  shore  more  stormy  far, 

With  thee  I'll  live,  I'll  die  with  thee. 


BOOK  in.    ODE  29. 
Tyrrhena  regum  progenies,  tibi. 

Sprung  from  Etruria's  royal  line, 

Maecenas  !  at  thy  friend's  abode 
There  is  a  cask  of  virgin  wine. 

Roses,  and  perfume  that  has  flowed 
'Erst  o'er  thy  locks — no  more  delay. 

Let  OZsula's  soft-sloping  brow, 
And  Tibur  bathed  in  constant  spray, 

For  other  scenes  release  thee  now  ; 
Thy  glut  of  grandeur  leave  awhile, 

The  massive  wall  and  cloud-capped  dome, 
Nor  flatter,  with  unceasing  smile, 

The  smoke,  and  wealth,  and  noise  of  Rome. 

Change,  not  unpleasing  to  the  great, 

A  poor  man's  scant  but  cleanly  fare, 
With  no  proud  pomp  of  purple  state, 

May  smooth  the  anxious  brow  of  care. 
The  sun  glares  forth  with  scorching  eye, 

The  dog-star  burns  the  sultry  plain, 
The  lion  rages  in  the  sky, 

The  summer  days  are  come  again  ; 


288  APPENDIX. 


The  weary  swain  to  welcome  shades 

Drives  his  faint  flock  to  streams  and  groves- 
While  not  one  wandering  breath  invades 
The  silence  of  the  bank  he  loves. 

Guarding  the  safety  of  the  State, 

'Tis  thine  to  watch  with  prudent  mind 

What  China,  Persia  meditate, 

What  Tanais,  what  remotest  Ind. 

The  God  who  all  Fate's  secret  knows, 

Yet  wisely  shrovrds  from  human  sight, 
But  laughs,  when  mortals  would  expose 

What  he  enwraps  in  darkest  night. 
Rule  thou  the  present,  all  the  rest 

Moves  like  a  stream — now  peaceful  flowing 
To  sink  in  Ocean's  tranquil  breast, 

Now  trees  and  rocks  in  whirlpools  throwing, 
Flocks,  herds,  the  peasants  ruined  dwelling, 

Rolling  along  with  thundering  sound. 

When  the  chafed  stream  with  floods  is  swelling ; 

And  woods  and  mountains  roar  around, 
He  of  himself  is  lord  and  king 

Who  with  each  setting  sun  can  say, 
"  To  morrow  calm  or  storm  may  bring, 

It  recks  not,  I  have  lived  to-day  !" 

That  Power  which  brightens  all  the  sky, 

Or  with  loud  whirlwinds  shakes  the  Pole—- 
The deeds  once  done — the  time  gone  by — 
Has  fixed  beyond  his  own  control. 

With  insolent  and  mocking  glee  . 

Fortune  her  wayward  game  will  play ; 
And  now  to  others,  now  to  me, 

Her  ever-shifting  smiles  display. 
I  praise  her  while  the  turn  is  mine, 

But,  if  her  nimble  wings  she  ply, 
All  that  she  gave  me  I  resign, 

And  cling  to  virtuous  poverty. 

'Tis  not  for  me,  when  groans  the  mast, 

With  furious  storms  from  Afric's  shore, 
With  prayers  and  vows  to  woo  the  blast 

Lest  one  rich  Tynan  cargo  more 
Increase  the  greedy  ocean's  prey — 

Me  through  the  vexed  JEgean  seas 
Shall  then  my  two-oared  skiff  convey, 

With  kind  twin-stars  and  favoring  breeze. 


BOOK  iv.    ODE  3. 
Quern  tu  Melpomene  seme/. 

Melpomene,  celestial  maid, 

Whom  at  his  birth  thy  favoring  eye  surveyed, 


APPENDIX.  289 

Him  never  Isthmian  toils  shall  bring 

The  applauded  conqueror  from  the  battle's  ring; 

Nor  fiery  steeds  his  chariot  place 

First  at  the  goal,  the  winner  of  the  race  ; 

Nor  War  his  brows  with  Delian  laurels  deck 

For  trampling  on  the  vanquished  tyrant's  neck. 

But  streams  thro'  fertile  Tibur  gliding, 
And  groves,  in  leafy  shade  their  votary  hiding, 
Shall  in  /Eolian  verse  proclaim 
To  distant  ages  his  ennobled  name. 

Of  princely  Rome  the  general  voice 

Has  ranked  me  with  her  much-loved  bards,  the  choice 

Of  Envy  for  a  while  denied, 

Now  in  low  murmurs  all  her  taunts  subside. 

Oh  thou  who  temperest  the  full  swell 

Of  sounds  that  echo  from  the  golden  shell, 

Who  e'en  from  voiceless  fish  could'st  pour 

The  swan's  soft  music  in  his  dying  hour  ! 

'Tis  thy  sole  bounty  that  I  see 

The  passer-by's  raised  finger  point  out  me. 

And  to  that  glorious  style  aspire — 

The  favorite  minstrel  of  the  Roman  lyre, 

That  I  can  sing — oh  power  benign  ! — 

And  that  I  please  (if  that  I  please)  is  thine. 


BOOK  iv.    ODE  9. 
Ne  forte  credos  interiiura,  qua. 

Oh  !  think  not  that  the  verse  will  die 

Which  tempered  to  the  harmonious  string, 

With  art  of  new-tried  minstrelsy, 
Here  by  my  native  stream  I  sing. 

Though  Homer  fill  the  highest  throne, 

Lord  of  an  universal  reign, 
Is  Pindar's  daring  flight  unknown  ; 

Or  bold  Alcaeus'  threatening  strain? 

The  measures  by  Anacreon  played 

Enchant  us  still  ;  and  warm  and  young 

The  raptures  of  the  .'Eolian  maid 
As  when  her  lips  her  passion  sung. 

Not  first  did  Sparta's  beauteous  queen 
The  adulterer's  garb  and  curls  admire— 

His  glittering  train  and  princely  mien — 
Till  glowed  her  breast  with  guilty  fire. 

Not  Tcucer  bent  Cydonian  bow 

First,  nor  the  brave  old  Cretan  king 

With  his  stout  sire  assailed  the  foe 

In  wars  the  Muse  would  gladly  sing. 
II.— iq 


290  APPENDIX. 

Not  once  was  sacked  imperial  Troy, 
Nor  Hector  and  his  brethren  brave, 

For  the  chaste  wife  and  nursling  boy, 
Deep  scars  in  fight  received  and  gave. 

'Ere  Agamemnon  left  his  coast 

Full  many  a  hero  fought  and  fell — 

Their  names  are  gone — their  memory  lost  ; 
They  had  no  bard  their  fame  to  tell. 

Little  is  manly  virtue  raised 

Above  the  grave  of  coward  sloth, 

If  all  unhonored  and  unpraised 
Oblivion's  night  encircle  both. 

Thy  name,  thy  toils  to  serve  the  State, 
Shall,  Lollius,  by  my  lays  be  told — 

Thy  soul  erect  in  every  fate. 

Prudent  and  valiant — wise  yet  bold. 

Consul,  not  only  for  the  year 

Distinguished  by  the  illustrious  name, 

But  through  all  time  to  warm  and  cheer 
The  bright  example  and  the  fame. 

Oft  as  the  faithful  and  the  good, 

The  Judge,  sworn  foe  to  fraud  and  wrong, 

Firm  in  that  dangerous  gap  has  stood 
That  parts  the  feeble  and  the  strong. 

Who  spurns  the  Expedient  for  the  Right, 
Scorns  money's  all-attractive  charms, 

And  through  mean  crowds  that  clogged  his  fight 
Has  nobly  cleared  his  conquering  arms. 

Oh,  never  call  that  mortal  blessed 
Who,  boastful  of  his  treasured  store, 

And  of  the  much,  too  much,  possessed, 
Yet,  inly  murmuring,  pines  for  more. 

More  justly  is  that  title  given 

To  him  who,  wisely  grateful,  shares 

The  large  benevolence  of  Heaven, 
Yet  poverty  with  patience  bears. 

Who  shrinks  from  crime,  and  fears  disgrace 
Far  worse  than  death,  that  conquers  all, 

And  Death  himself  can  fearless  face 
At  friendship's  or  his  country's  call. 


BOOK  iv.    ODE  12. 
yam  veris  comites,  qua  mare  temferant. 

The  Thracian  airs  that  wait  on  Spring 
Impel  the  vessel's  canvas  wing, 
The  brooks  from  wintry  snows  are  freed, 
From  hardening  frost  the  mead. 


APPENDIX.  291 

The  bird  whose  tuneful  strains  bewail 
Cecropian  horrors — dreadful  tale  ! 
Now  with  the  expectant  mother's  care, 
Does  her  soft  nest  prepare. 

While  sheep  on  tender  herbage  graze. 
Their  guardian  pipes  his  rustic  lays, 
Charming  the  deity  that  loves 
The  Arcadian  fields  and  groves. 

Virgil,  the  times  to  thirst  incline, 
But  would  you  taste  my  Chian  wine, 
Thou  client  of  the  rich  and  great, 
With  nard  must  earn  the  treat. 

A  little  box,  no  more  I  ask, 
Shall  from  its  cellar  lift  the  cask, 
Potent  to  kindle  hope's  bright  ray, 
And  wash  foul  care  away. 

Such  pleasures  if  thou  haste  to  share, 
Come,  but  thy  ransom  with  thee  bear, 
My  flowing  cups  unbought  I  can  not  giro, 
Wealth's  proud  prerogative. 

Delays  and  love  of  gain  suspend, 
Think  of  the  gloomy  pyre,  and  blend 
A  little  folly,  sweet  if  rare. 

With  the  grave  thoughts  of  care. 

The   two   following  translations,   from   Catullus   and 
Bcranger,  were  also  made  in  his  later  years. 

CATULLUS.    ODE  iv. 
Phaselus  ilk  quern  videtis  hospites, 

Friends  !  this  pinnace  that  you  see 
Says  that  none  so  fleet  as  she 
Ever  swam  the  waves — had  force 
To  o'ertake  her  rapid  course, 
Taking  flight  from  shore  to  shore, 
Winged  with  sail,  or  urged  by  oar  ; 
Says  that  Adria's  dangerous  coast, 
And  the  Cyclads  vouch  her  boast, 
Rhodes,  erect  in  noble  pride, 
Fierce  Propontis"  onward  tide, 
Wild,  inhospitable  Thrace, 
And  that  gulf,  her  native  place, 
Where,  though  pinnace  now,  of  yore 
On  the  crest  of  high  Cytore, 
A  leafy  grove,  she  oft  consigned 
Whispers  to  the  passing  wind. 
You,  Amastris,  Pontic  Queen, 
You,  Cytore,  with  box-trees  green, 
Says  our  pinnace,  long  ago. 
Well  her  history  knew,  and  know 


APPENDIX. 


That  she  crowned  your  heights,  her  oars 

First  dipped  in  waves  that  wash  your  shores, 

And  through  raging  storms  abhorred, 

Thence  in  safety  bore  her  lord. 

Right  or  left  the  gales  might  blow, 

Or  with  both  Jove  aid  the  prow, 

Never  did  her  crew  assuage 

With  weak  vows  the  sea-god's  rage. 

From  the  sea  she  earliest  knew 

To  this  lake,1  so  bright  and  blue. 

Now  all  is  past.     No  more  she  floats, 

But,  in  age,  to  you  devotes, 

Earned  by  toil,  her  peaceful  sleep, 

Kind  twin  stars  that  rule  the  deep. 

BERANGER.    LA  BONNE  VIEILLB. 
Voui  vicillerez,  o  ma  belle  maitresse  / 

You  must  grow  old,  my  beauteous  wife  ! 

And  time  for  me  shall  be  no  more, 
The  ebbing  sands  of  shortened  life, 

Escape  with  twice  their  speed  of  yore  ! 
Survive  me,  but  in  wintry  age 

Think  of  the  joys  that  blessed  our  spring, 
By  the  calm  fire  sad  cares  assuage, 

And  sing  the  songs  I  used  to  sing. 

Maidens  and  youths  shall  love  to  trace 

The  fading  lines  where  beauty  dwelt, 
With  fond  regard  admire  your  face, 

No  wonder  at  the  flame  I  felt. 
They'll  ask  you  of  this  much-wept  lover, 

Tell  them  my  love,  its  warmth,  its  pains, 
By  the  kind  fire,  oh  talk  me  over, 

And  sing  again  my  favorite  strains. 

"  Say  was  he  kind  ?  "  »h,  then  confess, 

Without  a  blush,  "  I  loved  him  ever," 
**  Could  gain  or  guile  his  soul  possess  ?  " 
Proudly  you'll  answer,  "  Never,  never  !" 
Tell,  how  he  touched,  with  feeling  true, 

To  tenderer  notes,  a  joyous  string; 
By  the  calm  fire  old  thoughts  renew, 

And  sing  the  songs  I  used  to  sing. 

I  taught  your  tears  for  France  to  stream, 

Tell  our  brave  youth,  a  patriot  band, 
That  hope  and  glory  were  my  theme, 

When  prostrate  lay  our  native  land  ; 
Tell  how  the  furious  northern  blast 

Whelmed  the  fair  bays  of  many  a  spring  J 
In  the  bright  future  plunge  the  past, 

And  sing  the  songs  I  used  to  sing. 

1  The  Lake  of  Como,  where  he  dedicated  the  pinnace  to  Castor  and 
Pollux. 


APPENDIX.  *9j 

Beloved  one,  when  my  poor  fame 

Claims  in  lone  age  your  sorrowing  hours, 
When  your  weak  hands  my  portrait  frame 

With  brightest  wreaths  of  vernal  flowers, 
Think  we  shall  meet  in  happier  sphere  ; 

Joy  has  no  end  there,  love  no  wing ; 
Bid  hope  your  latest  sunset  cheer, 

And  sing  the  songs  I  used  to  sing. 


II.    ORIGINAL  VERSES. 

Of  the  three  following  pieces,  the  first  was  written  at 
Winterslow,  A.  D.  1796  (aet.  17);  the  two  following,  at 
Cambridge,  A.  D.  1799-1800  (aet.  20,  21). 

LINES  ON  THORNEY  DOWN, 

A  high  hill,  crtwned  -with  -wood,  rising  over  Salisbury  Plain. 
A.  D.   1796,  XT.   17. 

Genius  of  that  romantic  hill,  whose  sod 

Has  often  by  my  pilgrim  feet  been  trod, 

Hail,  rough  old  sire,  who  lift'st  thy  head  so  high. 

The  monarch  of  this  bleak  sterility ! 

Hail  to  thy  mossy  venerable  oaks, 

Which  never  trembled  at  the  woodman's  strokes, 

Where  strongly  working  fancy  can  retrace 

Religious  fury  on  the  Druid's  face. 

Hail  to  thy  hoary  thorns  which  downward  grow, 

Like  the  last  wild  locks  on  an  old  man's  brow. 

Thy  yews  amid  the  festal  hollies  green, 

Which  add  the  last  gloom  to  this  dreary  scene, 

To  me  this  dreary  scene  more  joy  affords 

Than  the  gay  parks  which  please  the  pride  of  lords. 

Say — for  the  dread  Egyptians  often  find 

In  thy  recesses  shelter  from  the  wind, 

And  oft  the  vagrant  whom  long  wanderings  tire 

Borrows  from  thee  a  solitary  fire — 

To  me  when  anxious  with  more  just  alarms, 

Wilt  thou  unfold  thy  hospitable  arms  ? 

Wilt  thou  receive  and  comfort  one  poor  guest, 

Who  flies  the  world  and  looks  to  thee  for  rest? 

For  oh  !  this  world,  where  the  raw  lad  aspires 
To  reach  the  glittering  aim  of  his  desires, 
Whose  path  the  artless  girl  would  fain  behold, 
All  strewed  with  roses  and  all  paved  with  gold. 
Surely  this  world,  in  solemn  mockery  drest, 
Can  give  few  pleasures  to  the  generous  breast, 
And,  far  from  common  ill,  for  private  good 
The  honest  man  would  fly  to  solitude. 


«94  APPENDIX. 


It  must  not  be,  and  man  would  ill  espouse 

This  partial  plan,  which  reason  disavows ; 

Whate'er  his  passions  or  desires  may  be, 

Man's  scene  of  action  is  society  ; 

Sunk  by  calamity,  involved  in  strife, 

These  are  the  only  real  terms  of  life, 

In  equal  portions  gratefully  to  share 

Joy's  honied  drop,  and  the  crude  draught  of  care* 

Yet  sure,  if  aught  such  suffering  can  abate, 
And  set  the  soul  beyond  the  reach  of  fate, 
This  precious  balm  with  kindliest  aid  will  fall 
At  some  serene  and  peaceful  interval, 
When,  to  sublimely  tempered  thought  inclined, 
It  leaves  the  bustle  of  the  world  behind. 

Then  up  to  view  all  nations  would  I  call, 
Their  grandeur  and  subjection,  rise  and  fall, 
While  history's  page,  extended  to  my  eye, 
Still  more  endears  my  native  liberty. 
Then  Science  might  her  varied  gifts  impart 
Instruct  the  reason  and  amend  the  heart ; 
In  every  bud  while  moral  maxims  spring, 
"  Sermons  in  stones  and  good  in  everything." 

The  passions  hushed,  the  temper  mildly  even, 

While  views  of  nature  lift  the  soul  to  Heaven. 

Oft  as  on  this  my  rambling  fancies  turn, 

I  think  of  thee,  old  desolated  bourn, 

The  quiet  harbor,  where  my  skiff  may  moor 

When  the  winds  whistle,  and  the  thunders  roar, 

Where  I,  at  ease,  may  all  my  tackling  trim, 

Then  tempt  the  wave  once  more,  to  sink  or  swim. 


To  the  above  may  be  added  the  following  "  Verses  on 
the  Slave  Trade  and  the  Press,"  written  in  1846,  pub- 
lished in  1847,  and  referred  to  in  Chap.  XXXI. 

Hail  to  the  Press,  whose  pitying  care 

The  friendless  pauper's  doom  displayed, 
The  loathsome  toil,  the  sordid  fare, 

The  swift  disease,  the  lingering  aid ! 
Hail  to  the  Press,  who  dared  to  face 

The  power  austere  and  dimly  seen. 
Which,  tow'ring  in  its  pride  of  place. 

Contending  factions1  joined  to  screen  ! 
Rebuke  from  thee  the  mighty  found, 

The  lowliest  comfort  and  redress—- 
For such  high  service,  freely  sound 

Thy  own  just  praises,  generous  Press  I 

1  The  Abominations  imputed  to  most  persons  concerned  in  administering 
the  Poor  Law  in  the  Andover  Union  are  alluded  to. 


APPENDIX  295 

O  joyful  thought !— For  all  the  ills 

That  injured  men  from  men  endure, 
A  power  which  can  whate'er  it  wills. 

Proclaims  a  vengeance  and  a  cure. 
Well  sang  the  bar5  of  Hope — "  Where'er 

Degraded  nature  groans  or  pines, 
Scorched  by  hot  Guinea's  flagrant  air 

Chill'd  in  Siberia's  dreary  mines, 
Truth  shall  pervade  the  darkness  there, 

With  newly-wakened  smiles  to  bless 
The  dreadful  features  of  Despair,"  l 

Her  guide,  her  guard,  the  glorious  Press. 

No  respite  for  her  noble  rage, 

No  idle  sloth  will  guilt  allow, 
New  battles  daily  called  to  wage, 

And  weave  fresh  laurels  for  her  brow. 
Ev'n  now  o'er  Afric's  wasted  soil 

The  tide  of  savage  war  is  rolled 
That  captive  men,  war's  only  spoil, 

By  Christians  may  be  bought  and  sold. 
From  home  and  country  fiercely  torn, 

The  wife's  embrace,  the  babe's  caress, 
Dragged  to  the  fatal  coast,  in  scorn 

Of  Heav'n,  of  Nature,  of  the  Press. 

What  hurrying  ship  escaped  from  view, 

Swift  o'er  the  Atlantic  waters  ran? 
Her  ruling  force  a  ruffian  few, 

Her  crowded  cargo  pinion'd  man. 
One  only  sight,  one  sound,  to  cheer 

The  drooping,  stifled,  heart-struck  slave, 
To  see  a  brother's  death  and  hear 

His  body  plunge  beneath  the  wave.1 
Awake,  arise  !  from  death  alone 

His  bursting  bosom  hopes  redress. 
On  earth,  too,  be  some  pity  shown, 

Plead  for  the  victims,  Christian  Press  ' 

Not  one,  not  ten — a  hundred  sail 

Skulking  from  many  a  creek  and  bay, 
Hundreds  in  every  floating  jail, 

To  life-long  slavery  bear  away. 
No  crime  has  yoked  the  sable  neck, 

And  sunk  young  manhood  in  despair. 
The  ruthless  jailors  pace  the  deck, 

The  worst,  the  only,  culprits  there. 

1  Campbell's  "  Pleasures  of  Hope." 

"  Where'er  degraded  nature  groans  or  pines, 
On  Guinea's  shore,  in  Sibir's  dreary  mines. 
Truth  shall  pervade  the  unfathom'd  darkness  there, 
And  light  the  dreadful  features  of  J)espair,"  &c. 

*  Lord  Brougham's  speech  on  the  Sugar  Bin  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
Lord  George  Bentinck's  in  the  House  of  Commons. 


296  APPENDIX. 

The  guiltless  on  a  foreign  soil 

Condemned  to  till  a  burning  field, 
Waste  wretched  life  in  baneful  toil, 

And  feel  the  lash  they  ought  to  wield. 

And  dares  the  Legion  fiend  of  Gold, 

Untired,  inflexible,  so  long 
By  England  baffled,  shamed,  controll'd. 

Hope  for  her  recreant  aid  to  Wrong  ? 
And  shall  the  slanderous  demon  say 

She  has  so  soon  the  memory  lost 
Of  deeds  that  gild  her  brightest  day, 

Except  to  count  and  grudge  their  cost  ? 
Nay,  that  her  huckstering  sons  prepare, 

In  loss  and  profit  versed  too  well, 
The  thief  to  urge — his  spoil  to  share  ? 

Indignant  Press,  the  taunt  repel ! 

What  ?  tongue-tied  all  ?  at  such  a  time 

Forget  your  triumph  and  your  boast, 
Champion  of  weakness,  foe  to  crime, 

Slumbers  the  guard  on  SUCH  a  post  ? 
If  England  tamely  standing  by, 

The  just,  the  generous,  and  the  free, 
Can  hear  the  tale  with  tearless  eye, 

'Tis  that  she  deems  it  can  not  be. 
She  knows  thy  tender  sympathy, 

Thy  pitying  care  for  deep  distress. 
She  waits  the  true  alarm  from  thee, 

Her  warning  from  the  watchful  Press. 

The  oracle  adjured  to  speak 

Its  high  behest  to  worlds  around, 
Slow  comes  the  answer,  faint  and  weak, 

And  mixed  with  many  a  vulgar  sound. 
"  Unseen  to  us,  the  scourge,  the  rack, 

The  mangled  flesh,  the  torturing  thong, 
The  slaves  are  '  distant,"  they  are  '  black,'  ' 

Theirs  is  '  imaginary '  wrong. 
Unheard  by  us  the  piercing  cries, 

Life's  desperate  struggle,  latest  groan, 
On  other  heads  the  evil  lies, 

The  shameful  gain  is  all  our  own. 

"  Impatient  sufferers,  quell  your  fears  ! 

Left  to  itself  hard  slavery  breeds 
Its  own  defeat  in  three  score  years  ;  * 

Perhaps  in  five !     May  bloody  deeds 
Prompt  bloodier  vengeance  !     Hard  the  fate, 

Bitter  the  insults  bondsmen  feel, 
Give  your  sad  lives  a  shorter  date, 

Fix  in  your  tyrants'  hearts  the  steel ; 
Approving  England,  calm  and  mute. 

Shall  sip  her  cheapened  sweets,  and  see 

•  ••  Times."  f  "  Dailv  News." 


APPENDIX.  297 

The  man  degraded  to  a  brute, 

The  slave  by  hate  and  crime  set  free  ! 

"And  sage  philosophy  declares,1 

From  curious  reasonings  well  combined. 

That,  dealing  in  whatever  wares, 

Trade  must  range  free  and  unconfined. 

Free  to  make  jest  of  scruples  dry. 
The  pirate's  wages  free  to  pay, 

Deal  in  the  war-won  skulls,*  and  buy 

From  the  fell  Thug  his  blood-stained  prey. 

This  forcing  hotbed  Nature  made, 
That  Christian  men  to  full  success 

May  drive  the  sails  of  prosperous  trade- 
Teach  the  true  doctrine,  liberal  Press  ! 

"  Can  British  fabrics  find  their  gold 

But  from  the  toil  of  suffering  slaves  ?* 
Must  care  for  Afric's  woes  withhold 

The  least  indulgence  luxury  craves  ? 
Though  outraged  faith  and  honor  chide, 

Though  Nature  shrink,  though  mercy  weep, 
Whatever  ills  mankind  betide, 

WE  SWEAR  TO   HAVE  OUR   SUGAR  CHEAP  ! 
Thus  may  the  lowly  peasant  gain 

Luxurious  meals  before  unknown, 
And  we,  the  great,  no  loss  sustain, 

Except  of  our  good  name  alone. 

"  The  hypocrite4  and  saint  may  prate 

Of  holy  writ,  and  nature's  law  ; 
The  ascendant  star  that  sways  our  fate 

And  keeps  the  spell-bound  world  in  awe  : 
CONSISTENCY— the  pride  of  Peel* 

The  guiding  light  of  Russell's  course,* 
Which  braves  the  call  of  patriot  zeal, 

But  shrinks  from  clamor,  yields  to  force. 
Consistency  demands  that  you, 

Britons,  to  whom  some  errors  fall, 

1  "  Morning  Chronicle." 

-  *  Cannibalism  was  encouraged  by  Europeans  in  New  Zealand,  that  the 
skulls  of  the  slain  might  be  made  a  subject  of  merchandise.  The  article 
was  well  known  at  the  Custom  House. 

1  Resolutions  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Committee  in  1841  and  1846.  At  the 
latter  period,  though  not  at  the  former,  they  distinctly  "  deny  that  the 
Government  measure  will  have  any  tendency  to  increase  the  Slave  Trade  ! " 

4  "  Spectator,"  &c. 

'  Catholic  Emancipation  ;  Government  Plan  of  Education  ;  Protection 
and  Tariff;  Sliding  Scale  and  Free  Trade ;  Income  Tax ;  Mr.  C«bden  in 
1843  and  in  1846.  Compare  also  the  proem  with  the  peroration,  the  argu- 
ment with  the  vote  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  on  the  sugar-duty  question. 

*  Fixed  Duty  or  Free  Trade  ;  Income  Tax,  Coercion  Bill ;  Irish  Arms' 
Bill,  &c.  Compare  the  slave  measures  of  1833  and  1838  with  those  ot 
1841  and  1846. 


298  APPENDIX. 

No  base,  no  vicious  aim  eschew, 
But  foster  and  promote  them  all. 

"  Let  the  stol'n  negro  pine  a  slave, 

Let  ruthless  Trade  her  curses  shower, 
Or  I  reject  the  boon  you  gave, 

And  fling  away  this  short-lived  power." 
The  frigid  Premier  speaks  the  threat, 

To  senators'  enraptured  ears, 
A  promise  that  their  power  shall  yet 

Live  to  the  end  of  sev'n  long  years. 
In  varying  strains  the  skillful  Press, 

Low  reasoning  or  declaiming  loud, 
Hails  the  bold  wrong,  beyond  redress 

Decreed,  established,  and  avowed. 

O  great  and  venerable  name, 

Albion  !  illumed  by  Gospel  light ; 
Boasting  to  build  a  deathless  fame 

On  the  deep-rooted  rock  of  Right, 
Proud  in  Opinion's  golden  chain 

The  admiring  nation's  hearts  to  bind, 
And  holding  forth  thy  moral  reign 

A  faultless  model  for  mankind — 
How  shall  that  triple  bond  outlast 

The  dark  resolve,  the  fatal  hour 
Which  sees  thee  yield  thy  glorious  Past 

To  sordid  Wealth,  or  baser  Power? 

O  Thou  whose  equal  eye  surveys 

Unhappy  Afric's  realms  undone, 
From  that  abyss  of  misery  raise 

These  brethren  of  thy  only  Son  !  ' 
O  Thou,  all  wise,  all  just,  all  good, 

Deign  to  suppress  thy  wrath  divine, 
Forbear  to  visit,  for  the  blood 

By  Moloch  poured  on  Mammon's  shrine 
Quench  not  the  blush  of  honest  shame, 

Touch  reckless  hearts  with  love  again, 
Let  Christians  still  deserve  their  name, 

And  men  remember  they  are  men  ! 

1  "  Forasmuch  as  ye  did  it  TO  THE  LEAST  OF  THESE,  MY  BRETHREN,  yc 
did  it  unto  me." 


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